Stieg Larsson (1954--2004) was a Swedish writer and journalist. Prior to his sudden death caused by a heart attack in November 2004 he finished three detective novels of his trilogy the Millenium-series; "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" (2005, UK release in January 2008), "The Girl Who Played With Fire", (2006, UK release in January 2009) and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest" (UK release in late autumn 2009).
Before his career as a writer, Stieg Larsson was mostly known for his struggle against racism and right-wing extremism. In the middle of the 1980's he helped to start the anti-violence project "Stop the Racism". This was followed by the founding of the Expo-foundation in 1995, where later he became the executive. From 1999 he was appointed the chief editor of Expo, a magazine published by the organization Expo.
Stieg Larsson is the ultimate market phenomenon of the millennium literature – he turned into best-selling author overnight, posthumously. In 2008 he was the most read author in the world after Khaled Hosseini. By the middle of 2010 his “Millennium series” have sold more than 27 million copies in more than 40 countries. The Swedish journalist and writer, born in Skelleftehamn, had a remote lifestyle, living in the province with his grandparents, avidly reading science-fiction. Contrary to his literary inclinations, his breakthrough came with the now officially most famous crime fiction of our times – the Millennium series, manuscripts of three completed, yet unpublished, novels in series that he left at the time of his death (2004). A symbol of an unprecedented commercial success and textual brilliance, Stieg Larsson is more than symptomatic for the present Swedish wave of astounding cultural impact.