Stieg Larsson (1954-2004)

When writer Stieg Larsson died of a heart attack in Stockholm at the age of 50, he was not exactly penniless but he was not wealthy either - certainly not as rich as he quickly became, albeit posthumously.

A journalist and left-wing activist especially interested in anti-racist issues, Larsson was also a writer of thrillers who, when he died, left behind the final drafts of three complete novels. He also had a contract. The books would be published.

He died before the first novel appeared. Soon there were three and Larsson became an overnight sensation with his Millennium books - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest. Translated into many languages, the books racked up more than 50 million sales. Larsson's estate grew from negligible to gigantic.

In addition to best-selling books, Larsson also left behind an old and, more importantly, unsigned will. He also left behind no marriage certificate.

Leftist or ideological opposition to the institution of marriage was not the reason why Stieg and Eva refrained from walking down the aisle. They decided not to marry for a sound practical reason: they wanted to stay alive. If they married, their home address would become publicly available. But right-wing fanatics were known to comb through public records for that kind of information - and they were not motivated by the desire to send congratulations letters.

Larsson and Gabrielsson concluded that marriage would be too risky.

No will, plenty of ill will

Larsson's unsigned 1977 will reflected his political leanings. His beneficiary was the local branch of the the Communist Workers League.

Who inherited his estate and the rights to his works? Who are his current and future beneficiaries? Who owns the computer and the data on its hard drive?

Unfortunately for Eva Gabrielsson, no marriage certificate meant no inheritance.

Larsson died intestate and, in Sweden as in England and Wales, the rules of intestacy dictate that his beneficiaries were his blood relatives - in this case, his brother and father.

Larsson's girlfriend has not seen eye to eye with her former partner's family. She retained his computer, which reportedly contains the near-final draft of a fourth Millennium novel.

Larsson's father and brother offered her more than a million pounds to settle any inheritance claims she might have, and also to turn over the contents of the computer to them. She declined.

POSTSCRIPT In his 2010 biography, Stieg: From Activist to Author, Jan-Erik Pettersson explains that, according to Swedish law, Eva Gabrielsson was entitled to half of Larsson's home and household goods, and the remainder would go to his blood relatives. In the event, Larsson's family gave Eva the other half of the apartment, but the rights to unpublished material and other copyright issues remained unresolved.

Would Larsson's computer yield a fourth Millennium novel, maybe even more? Pettersson put these rumours to rest: There will be no new novel.

Pettersson explains that Larsson drafted his 1977 will on the eve of a trip to Ethiopia, which was a dangerous place to visit in those days. A will seemed sensible, and it is conceivable that, in preparing for his trip, he was simply too busy or preoccupied to have it formally signed and witnessed.

But Pettersson and many other commentators also note that fear for his and Eva's life was a daily feature of their lives in Sweden. Why, then, did he never formalise the will after he returned to Sweden or draft a new one during the decades that followed?

Pettersson notes that Larsson and Gabrielsson were worried about their financial futures, and Larsson seemed confident that his novels would be good earners. He found the time and energy to negotiate a publishing contract for his novels, but he had no interest in producing a new will.

Fifty-year-olds tend to have this in common with most twenty-year-olds: they expect to have plenty of time left.