He was the second-best-selling fiction author in the world for 2008, owing to the success of the English translation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, behind Afghan-American novelist Khaled Hosseini.
[1] The third and final novel in the Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, became the bestselling book in the United States in 2010, according to Publishers Weekly.
Until the age of nine, Larsson lived with his grandparents in a small wooden house in the countryside, near the village of Bjursele in Norsjö Municipality, Västerbotten County.
"[citation needed] Larsson was not as fond of the urban environment in the city Umeå, where he resided with his parents after his grandfather, Severin Boström, died of a heart attack at age 50.
Through the 1970s, Larsson published around 30 additional fanzine issues; after his move to Stockholm in 1971, he became active in the Scandinavian SF Society, of which he was a board member in 1978 and 1979, and chairman in 1980.
[9] Larsson spent parts of 1977 in Eritrea, training a squad of female Eritrean People's Liberation Front guerrillas in the use of mortars.
[13] In May 2008, it was announced that a 1977 will, found soon after Larsson's death, declared his wish to leave his assets to the Umeå branch of the Communist Workers League (now the Socialist Party).
As the will was unwitnessed, it was not valid under Swedish law, with the result that all of Larsson's estate, including future royalties from book sales, went to his father and brother, Joakim (1957-2024).
[14][15][16] His long-term partner Eva Gabrielsson,[17] who found the will, had no legal right to the inheritance, sparking controversy between his father and brother and her.
Reportedly, the couple never married because under Swedish law those entering marriage were required to make their addresses publicly available, which may have been a "security risk" as Larsson feared retaliation from violent extremists.
Larsson left about three-quarters of a fourth novel on a notebook computer, now possessed by his partner, Eva Gabrielsson; synopses or manuscripts of the fifth and sixth in the series, which he intended to comprise an eventual total of ten books, may also exist.
Through his written works, as well as in interviews, Larsson acknowledged that a significant number of his literary influences were American and British crime/detective fiction authors.
Topping the list were Sara Paretsky, Agatha Christie, Val McDermid, Dorothy L. Sayers, Elizabeth George, and Enid Blyton.
[29] One of the strongest influences originates from his own country: Pippi Longstocking, by Sweden's much-loved children's author Astrid Lindgren.
Larsson explained that one of his main recurring characters in the Millennium series, Lisbeth Salander, is actually fashioned on a grown-up Pippi Longstocking as he chose to sketch her.
Larsson has said when he was 15 years old, he witnessed three of his friends gang-raping a young girl, which led to his lifelong abhorrence of violence and abuse against women.
His longtime partner, Eva Gabrielsson, writes that this incident "marked him for life" in a chapter of her book that describes Larsson as a feminist.
She described, in great detail, how the fundamental narratives of his three books were essentially fictionalised portraits of the Sweden few people knew, a place where latent white supremacy found expression in all aspects of contemporary life, and anti-extremists lived in persistent fear of attack.
"Everything of this nature described in the Millennium trilogy has happened at one time or another to a Swedish citizen, journalist, politician, public prosecutor, unionist, or policeman," she writes.
[34][35][36] Both are women from disastrous childhoods, who somehow survive to become adults with notable skills, including fighting, and who accomplish good by operating somewhat outside the law.
One of Larsson's villains, Ronald Niedermann (blond hulk), has much in common with the invulnerable, sociopathic giant named Simon Delicata in the fourth Modesty Blaise book A Taste for Death.