Author Stieg Larsson was himself a wanted man living under death threats from those who opposed his views. Controversy has followed him even after death.
One of the biggest real life influences on the young Stieg Larsson must have been his grandfather, whom he lived with for most of his life up to the age of nine. Sweden was neutral during the Second World War but Larsson’s grandfather had been unable and unwilling to hide his opposition to the Nazis. His principled position and refusal to keep his opinions quiet had actually led to him being imprisoned.
There are clear parallels between Stieg Larsson and Blomkvist, the male protagonist of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.
There is an obvious resemblance between Larsson and Blomkvist as journalists with a political conscience and with the aim of exposing undesirable characters. There are other less obvious ‘collisions’ as well. The habitual references to coffee drinking, smoking and pizza in the books are said to be a reflection of Stieg Larsson’s own life style. Different accounts suggest different levels of cigarette consumption by the author these range from 20 a day to 60. This life style, along with genetic factors, perhaps partly explains his tragically early death. There are some references to a history of some heart problems in the family.
Stieg Larsson had already partly written a fourth book in the series. He had also planned out a further two and aimed for the Millennium Series to reach a final total of ten books.
Stieg Larsson also left controversy and familial wrangles of real animosity, though perhaps of not quite the proportions worthy of his fictional Vanger family who feature in The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo.
The family wrangles revolve around the fact that when he died, Stieg Larsson left a will, but a will which had not been signed. By Swedish law this means that all Stieg Larsson’s estate should go to his father and brother. This has been contested by Eva Gabriellson.
Given the importance of computers and computer stored data that occurs as central features in Stieg Larsson’s plotting there is an element of poetic pathos that Stieg Larsson’s incomplete draft of his fourth novel is now at the centre of a bitter family wrangle. For Eva is in possession of the laptop and will not hand it over to Larsson’s father and brother.
