Stieg Larsson (Born August 15, 1954;  Died November 9, 2004) was a Swedish reporter who posthumously became a major bestselling author with his Millennium Series, consisting of the novels The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, which was the highest-selling book in the United States in 2010. He is credited with being the first person to sell more than one million ebooks on Amazon.

Stieg began writing after receiving a typewriter for his 12th birthday. His initial genre was science fiction, and he was a co-editor of a fanzine, Sfären. He published 30 issues in the 1970's, and included several stories in his fanzines, eventually moving on to other science fiction outlets.

Stig Larsson was a friend of Stieg Larsson, and since both were authors, Stieg changed his name to add in an "e", even though they're pronounced the same.

Stieg grew up in the northern Sweden, which he considered the ass end of civilization. He lived with his grandparents for a long while, and stayed in a small yet modest house. When he grew up, Stieg became involved with communism and far-left political movements, which he supported until his death.

From 1977 to 1999, he worked with Sweden's main news agency, Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå, focusing a lot of his energies on extreme right-wing politics. He died after climbing seven flights of stairs because the elevator was out of order at the age of fifty. In his will, he left his assets to the communist party, but the will was unwitnessed and therefore invalid under Swedish law. His long-time girlfriend, Eva Gabrielsson, was left with nothing, since all of the assets were transferred to his estranged father and brother.

In Dragon Tattoo, there is a very visceral rape scene. Stieg witnessed three of his friends raping a young girl, and he always felt guilt at not stopping the violence. It marked him for life and made him a feminist champion.