As one of the most talked-about figures, Stieg Larsson has built a significant fortune. Our team analyzed the latest data to provide a clear picture of their income.
What Was Stieg Larsson's Net Worth?
While attending an anti-Vietnam War meeting at the age of 18, Larsson met Eva Gabrielsson, and the two entered into a relationship that would last until his death. After publishing her memoir "Stieg and Me: Memories of My Life with Stieg Larsson" in 2011, Gabrielsson was interviewed by "The Guardian," and she spoke about an incident that greatly affected Larsson as a teenager. One day Stieg witnessed a group of his friends commit gang rape, and for years afterward, he felt guilty for not intervening. Eva said that Stieg didn't tell her about the incident until a decade into their relationship "and it was obvious it still haunted him, he was still pained by the memory, the shame that he couldn't do anything. I think he was angry with himself for being such a bad judge of character. Coming from the forest into a city at nine years old you have to make new friends, and he was still upset about it. I am the only one he ever told."
Stieg's parents gave him a typewriter for his 12th birthday, and he began writing science-fiction stories. In 1972, he co-edited the fanzine "Sfären" with Rune Forsgren, and he attended the Stockholm sci-fi convention SF•72. He published more than 30 fanzine issues during the '70s, and in 1971, he joined the Scandinavian SF Society; he became a board member in 1978 and chairman two years later. Larsson served as editor or co-editor of numerous sci-fi fanzines, and in the late '70s, he was the president of Skandinavisk Förening för Science Fiction, Sweden's biggest sci-fi fan club. In his early twenties, Larsson changed the spelling of his name from "Stig" to "Stieg" to because he had a friend named Stig Larsson, who was also a writer. Stieg's first books were the nonfiction books "Extremhögern" (1991), "Sverigedemokraterna: den nationella rörelsen" (2001), "Debatten om hedersmord: feminism eller rasism" (2004), and "Sverigedemokraterna från insidan" (2004).
Stieg Larsson was a Swedish journalist and writer who had a net worth of $30 million at the time of his death in 2004. That's the same as around $45 million in today's dollars. As we detail later in this article, at the time of his death in 2004 Stieg did not have a will. This kicked off a bitter feud between his partner of 32 years and his surviving father and brother – who ultimately took control of and inherited his assets. In the years following his death, thanks to the release of his books and movies based on his books, Stieg's estate has earned tens of millions of dollars per year.
(Photo by Sophie Bassouls/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images)
Stieg Larsson was the author of the popular "Millennium trilogy," which includes the novels "Män som hatar kvinnor" ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"), "Flickan som lekte med elden" ("The Girl Who Played with Fire"), and "Luftslottet som sprängdes" ("The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest"). All three novels were published after Stieg's death, and they were adapted into a film series in Sweden. In 2011, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" was adapted into an American film directed byDavid Fincherand starringRooney MaraandDaniel Craig, and it grossed $239.3 million at the box office and earned five Academy Award nominations. In July 2010, Larsson became to first author to sell 1 million ebooks on Amazon. The "Millennium trilogy" has been published in more than 50 countries and has sold over 70 million copies.
At the time of his death, Larsson had completed three of the 10 novels he'd planned for the "Millennium" series, and they had all been accepted for publication but were not published until after his death. "Män som hatar kvinnor" ("Men who hate women") was published in Sweden in 2005, and it was published under the title "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" for the English-language market in 2008. It was followed by "Flickan som lekte med elden" ("The Girl Who Played with Fire") in 2006 and "Luftslottet som sprängdes" ("The Air Castle That Was Blown Up") in 2009. "Flickan som lekte med elden" was titled ""The Girl Who Played with Fire" for the English-language market, and "Luftslottet som sprängdes" was titled "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest."
Stieg Larsson was born Karl Stig-Erland Larsson on August 15, 1954, in Skelleftehamn, Sweden. He was the son of Vivianne Boström (who passed away in 1991) and Erland Larsson, and he had a younger brother named Joakim. Stieg's father and material grandfather both worked in a smelting plant, and Erland quit his job after he became sick from arsenic poisoning. Larsson's parents left 1-year-old Stieg in Västerbotten County with his maternal grandparents and moved to Stockholm to look for work. Larsson stayed there until he was 9 years old, and after his grandfather died, he went to live with his parents and brother. In 1972, Stieg graduated with a secondary diploma in social sciences, and he applied to Stockholm's Joint Colleges of Journalism but didn't pass the entrance exam. He was conscripted into the Swedish Army in 1974, and he served for 16 months and trained as a mortarman.
Larsson left most of a fourth novel on his computer, and it is believed that manuscripts or synopses of two more "Millennium" novels might exist. In 2013, Norstedts, a Swedish publisher, hired Swedish author/journalist David Lagercrantz to write more novels for the series, beginning with 2015's "Det som inte dödar oss" ("That which doesn't kill us"). The novel was titled "The Girl in the Spider's Web" for the English-language market, and it was followed by 2017's "Mannen som sökte sin skugga" ("The man who hunted his shadow"), which has the English title "The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye." In 2019, the sixth book in the series was released, and it was called "Hon som måste dö" ("She who must die"), or "The Girl Who Lived Twice" for English-language markets. Besides the film adaptations of the series, a miniseries entitled "Millennium" was also released. The 2010 Swedish six-part miniseries starredMichael NyqvistandNoomi Rapaceand aired on SVT1. In 2018,Claire Foystarred as Lisbeth Salander in the American film adaptation of "The Girl in the Spider's Web," but it did not come close to matching the success of 2011's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."
Ultimately, Stieg Larsson's financial journey is a testament to their success.
Disclaimer: All net worth figures are estimates based on public data.
