From Ireland, I moved on to Sweden, home on modern-day author, Stieg Larsson. I choose Stieg because I wanted to include an established writer of the modern era and his series have developed into a phenomenon today. Yeats can be directly linked to Sweden as it is where the Nobel Prize, which he won in 1923, originated.
Karl Stieg-Erland Larsson was born on the 15th August 1954 in Skelleftehamn, Sweden. Due to that fact that Stieg's parents both were too poor to raise him themselves, Stieg grew up in a small town with his grandparents. He looked up to his grandfather and admired his views regrading politics and morality. Severin (Stieg's grandfather) was strongly against fascism and was even imprisoned in a work camp in Storsien for rejecting the teachings of society and speaking out for equal rights and democracy. Stieg himself adopted these policies, angered and appalled by the treatment of his grandfather.
Stieg's real name is actually "Stig," however he changed the spelling to avoid confusion - his friend, also called Stieg, also had the hopes of becoming an established writer. However, both names are pronounced the same.
When he was only nine years old, Stieg moved back in with his parents & younger brother, following the death of his grandfather. It was soon after this, at the age of 12, when his passion for writing emerged. Stieg was given a present of a type-writer and stayed up till the early hours of the morning writing. At the beginning, his main interest lied with science-fiction and became chairman of the Scandinavian science fiction society. In 1971, he co-edited his first fanzine with Ruth Forsgren.
When Stieg was eighteen years old, he met Eva Gabrielsson at an anti-Vietnam War convention in Umea. Eva later went on to become his life-long partner until his death on the 9th November 2004 following a heart attack outside his apartment.
Both Stieg and his partner, Eva lived the last fifteen years of their lives under constant fear of attack. In 1999, a labor-union leader was murdered in his apartment by a group of Neo-Nazis, and the police found information about and photos of Stieg and Eva in the perpetrator's apartment. From then on, they never left their apartment together, removed mirrors in the hall and kept all their blinds down permanently.
It wasn't until after Stieg's death that he became an international icon. The Millenium Series - a series of three detective novels, that were completed but never published. Stieg wrote these novels after work, to relax and hoped to complete a total of ten novels, however never got to pursue this dream. The books are "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", "The Girl Who Played with Fire" and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest."
Vasterbotten County is a province in the north of Sweden, bordering Angermanland, Lapland, Norrbotten and the Gulf of Bothnia. With a population of 210,679, Vasterbotten was historically divided into two cities - Umea and Skelleftea - birthplace of Stieg Larsson.
Skelleftea is said to have been inhabited from around 100 AD by the Sami people and perhaps Finnish people, in parts. Today, Skelleftea has evolved into an industrial and mining city - for gold. As a result of this, the town is often referred to as "Goldtown."
Despite it's northern latitude, Sweden as a whole has a very much temperate climate, consisting of four distinct seasons and mild temperatures throughout the year. The South of Sweden has an oceanic climate, Central Sweden has a humid continental climate & the North has a subarctic climate. Overall, however, Sweden is much warmer & drier than most countries of similar latitudes.
"Nobody can avoid falling in love... They might want to deny it, but friendship is probably the most common form of love."- Stieg Larsson
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