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The life story of Stieg Larsson

Stieg Larsson was born in northern Sweden in 1954. He was raised by his grandparents in a small village in the north of Sweden. When Stieg was nine years old, his grandfather died and Stieg moved to live with his parents and his younger brother. Stieg was given a typewriter for his 12th birthday, and he spent most nights of his youth staying up writing. At 18 years of age he met Eva Gabrielsson at an anti-Vietnam War meeting. Eva was to become his lifelong companion.

After finishing school and his military service in Africa, Stieg Larsson worked a couple of years at a post office.
In 1977 Stieg Larsson started working as a graphic designer at a multimedia news provider in Sweden, a job he kept for the following 22 years. As the seventies passed, Stieg Larsson's interest gradually turned more towards right-wing extremism, an interest which had started with a school project on the subject and then continued to inspire him for the rest of his life. In 1991, his research resulted in his first book "Right-wing extremism" During the following years he became an expert on the subject and has held many lectures as well as written many novels on the subject.

Due to this activities, he and his life companion Eva Gabrielsson lived under constant threat from right-wing violence. However, this did not scare Stieg Larsson, instead it convinced him to step up his struggle. In 1995 he was the main force behind the founding of the Swedish magazine Expo, which fights intolerance.

Stieg Larson dies in 2004 as a result of a sudden heart attack. Prior to his death he finished three detective novels in his trilogy "The Millenium-series" which were published posthumously; "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo", "The Girl Who Played With Fire" and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest". The trilogy became a huge success, selling more than 20 million copies in 41 countries, making Stieg Larsson the second bestselling author in the world 2008.