Eva Gabrielsson
Encyclopedia
Eva Gabrielsson is a Swedish architect, author, political activist, feminist, and the long-time partner of the late Swedish mystery novelist Stieg Larsson
.
Her architectural practice is currently involved in housing and office construction and heading a European Union initiative to create sustainable architecture in the Dalecarlia region. As a writer, in addition to working with Stieg Larsson on his literary projects, she is the coauthor of several books, including a monograph on the subject of cohabitation in Sweden, a Swedish government study on how to create more sustainable housing, and a forthcoming study on the Swedish urban planner Per Olof Hallman. She has also translated into Swedish Philip K. Dick
’s The Man in the High Castle. As an activist, she works to end violence against women.
Gabrielsson and Stieg Larsson lived together from 1974 until his death in 2004. Larsson was one of the foremost experts in Sweden on antidemocratic, extreme right-wing, and neo-Nazi movements. Gabrielsson says she and Larsson never married because he had believed his anti-fascist work could have put her at risk if there was a paper trail linking them legally or financially. Because they were never married and Larsson died without leaving a will, his estate went to his father and brother, in accordance with Swedish law. Larsson was somewhat estranged from his father Erland and his brother Joakim because nine years of his childhood were spent happily living with his grandparents in the northern country of Sweden. “It is as if my identity has been erased. It’s like being dispossessed,” Gabrielsson said to a reporter in 2010.
Since shortly after his death, Gabrielsson and Joakim and Erland Larsson have been negotiating over control of Larsson's work. At one point, Larsson's father and brother offered Gabrielsson roughly $3.3 million, but she does not want money and will continue to fight for the literary rights of Larsson's work. One source interviewed a friend who said that Gabrielsson "will not be bought."
Gabrielsson's memoir,"There Are Things I Want You to Know" About Stieg Larsson and Me
, published by Seven Stories Press
, chronicles their life together and puts Larsson's often chaotic life into context. Gabrielsson, in one interview, explains that she did not start the memoir with the intention of writing a book; rather, it all stemmed from diary entries that Gabrielsson was writing in order to deal with the grief of losing her partner. The title of her book comes from a love letter that Larsson wrote to Gabrielsson when he thought he might die during a trip to Africa in 1977. The letter is included in the memoir along with the details of Larsson's trip to Africa.
Her partner, she says, was a feminist, a hopeless businessman, a journalist who could not hold down a staff job, and a passionate fighter and investigator for social causes and against the Far Right. The memoir also details how the couple met and their struggles together at Expo, the anti-fascist publication Larsson founded in 1995. According to Gabielsson, Larsson had written 200 pages of a fourth novel in his internationally successful Millennium series before he died; she has been seeking the legal authority to be in charge of what will happen to these 200 pages as well as with all of Larsson's literary work and success, though so far Larsson's family has refused to give her these rights. If granted the literary rights of Stieg Larsson's Millennium series, however, Gabrielsson explains that she is not sure that it is fair for a ghostwriter to complete the work that Larsson had started.
Stieg Larsson
Karl Stig-Erland Larsson , who wrote professionally as Stieg Larsson, was a Swedish journalist and writer, born in Skelleftehamn outside Skellefteå. He is best known for writing the "Millennium series" of crime novels, which were published posthumously...
.
Her architectural practice is currently involved in housing and office construction and heading a European Union initiative to create sustainable architecture in the Dalecarlia region. As a writer, in addition to working with Stieg Larsson on his literary projects, she is the coauthor of several books, including a monograph on the subject of cohabitation in Sweden, a Swedish government study on how to create more sustainable housing, and a forthcoming study on the Swedish urban planner Per Olof Hallman. She has also translated into Swedish Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
’s The Man in the High Castle. As an activist, she works to end violence against women.
Gabrielsson and Stieg Larsson lived together from 1974 until his death in 2004. Larsson was one of the foremost experts in Sweden on antidemocratic, extreme right-wing, and neo-Nazi movements. Gabrielsson says she and Larsson never married because he had believed his anti-fascist work could have put her at risk if there was a paper trail linking them legally or financially. Because they were never married and Larsson died without leaving a will, his estate went to his father and brother, in accordance with Swedish law. Larsson was somewhat estranged from his father Erland and his brother Joakim because nine years of his childhood were spent happily living with his grandparents in the northern country of Sweden. “It is as if my identity has been erased. It’s like being dispossessed,” Gabrielsson said to a reporter in 2010.
Since shortly after his death, Gabrielsson and Joakim and Erland Larsson have been negotiating over control of Larsson's work. At one point, Larsson's father and brother offered Gabrielsson roughly $3.3 million, but she does not want money and will continue to fight for the literary rights of Larsson's work. One source interviewed a friend who said that Gabrielsson "will not be bought."
Gabrielsson's memoir,"There Are Things I Want You to Know" About Stieg Larsson and Me
"There Are Things I Want You to Know" About Stieg Larsson and Me
"There Are Things I Want You to Know" About Stieg Larsson and Me is a memoir written by Eva Gabrielsson, the life partner of Stieg Larsson, about life with the author and all of the complications surrounding his legacy...
, published by Seven Stories Press
Seven Stories Press
Seven Stories Press is an independent publishing company. Located in New York City, the company was founded by editor Dan Simon in 1995 after he parted company with Four Walls Eight Windows. The company was named for its seven founding authors: Annie Ernaux, Gary Null, the estate of Nelson Algren,...
, chronicles their life together and puts Larsson's often chaotic life into context. Gabrielsson, in one interview, explains that she did not start the memoir with the intention of writing a book; rather, it all stemmed from diary entries that Gabrielsson was writing in order to deal with the grief of losing her partner. The title of her book comes from a love letter that Larsson wrote to Gabrielsson when he thought he might die during a trip to Africa in 1977. The letter is included in the memoir along with the details of Larsson's trip to Africa.
Her partner, she says, was a feminist, a hopeless businessman, a journalist who could not hold down a staff job, and a passionate fighter and investigator for social causes and against the Far Right. The memoir also details how the couple met and their struggles together at Expo, the anti-fascist publication Larsson founded in 1995. According to Gabielsson, Larsson had written 200 pages of a fourth novel in his internationally successful Millennium series before he died; she has been seeking the legal authority to be in charge of what will happen to these 200 pages as well as with all of Larsson's literary work and success, though so far Larsson's family has refused to give her these rights. If granted the literary rights of Stieg Larsson's Millennium series, however, Gabrielsson explains that she is not sure that it is fair for a ghostwriter to complete the work that Larsson had started.