Larsson's lover clings to final manuscript

[realthog]

The jolly good little UK booktrade e-zine Book2Book alerted me to this Daily Telegraph piece:

Stieg Larsson: lover reveals why she won't hand over final manuscript

Eva Gabrielsson, the lover of the late The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo author Stieg Larsson, has refused to hand over his final unpublished manuscript.

By Laura Roberts
Published: 7:36AM BST 23 Aug 2010

She has claimed he would not have approved of the way the trilogy has been treated.

Gabrielsson, who was Larsson's lover for 32 years, possesses a laptop containing a finished manuscript with the fourth instalment in the best-selling Millennium saga.

It was completed shortly before Larsson, an investigative journalist, died of a heart attack aged 50, six years ago. Gabrielsson has refused to hand it over to Larsson's estate which is run by his father Erland and younger brother Joakim.

[. . .]

Gabrielsson, 56, has not benefited financially from her lover's success because they never married. Instead the revenue from his books and sale of film rights has gone to his father and brother.

[. . .]

She told the Daily Mirror that Larsson would not have accepted the change made to his first novel's title. The series was originally called Men Who Hate Women, she claimed, and he would have objected to publisher's decision to call his book The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

"The theme of all three books is the subjugation of women, the abuse and violence against them," she said.

I have to say that, based on what little I know, I'm much on the side of Gabrielsson in this dispute. It's been my impression that she played more than a sounding-board role in the creation of the novels. Even if this isn't the case, what kind of greedy low-grade turds would cut her out of a share of the books' earnings on the basis of a legal technicality? The father and the brother weren't living with Larsson while he was writing these remarkable books. They presumably weren't there for him during those periods when the words weren't forming themselves right, the insinuating cloud of self-doubt was beginning to blot out everything else, or weariness was all. So far as I know, they did nothing at all to earn the vast sums in royalties and movie fees the books have brought them save be related to the author; Gabrielsson, who lived with the guy, could hardly have failed to contribute more than they did.

Oh, and she's right about the title change. The original was better.

Comments

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

I'm with you (and Gabrielsson).

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Good!

[mylefteye.livejournal.com]

I was with you until you disagreed with the title change. I think the 'Men Who Hate Women', although accurate and descriptive of the books, is a terrible title and would probably have sunk the series.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I disagree. Although I don't generally think of the title given to the series, Millennium, every time it comes to notice its meaninglessness and irrelevance really get up my nose.

Neither of us (I assume) has any idea how zappy Men Who Hate Women sounds/reads in Swedish.

[camies.livejournal.com]

This is something I've been pondering recently (inspired by a TV series called 'Heir Hunters'):

If someone dies without a will (or a legally valid one as in Larsson's case) why should their estate go to a relative (with the exception of dependents such as young children and e.g. relatives who they were caring for)?

This isn't the only case where someone who has cared for another person for years has not received a penny, while the money goes to a relative who in many cases never bothered with the deceased in their lifetime.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I take your general point. In this instance, though, I have no real difficulty with the father and brother sharing in the spoils (and for all I know they may have played a very active part in Larsson's adult life); what raises my hackles is their greedy exclusion of Gabrielsson.

[chalcedony.livejournal.com]

Huh. This implies that there's no common law marriage in Sweden? I find that really surprising.

And good for Gabrielsson for standing her ground.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

It does seem strange, doesn't it? Of course, it's perfectly possible they were lovers but not strictly speaking living together.

[scottakennedy.livejournal.com]

I quite like these books. Hence the long post.

They lived together for 30 some years, and yes, there is no common law marriage in Sweden. Larsson wrote the books partly to fund their retirement. That she's been excluded is shameful. She even had to fight the father and brother to retain ownership of her apartment, as it was half owned by Steig and hence reverted to the father and brother as well. The NYT did a great piece on it a while back.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/magazine/23Larsson-t.html?ref=stieg_larsson

One part that Gabrielsson particularly objected to was the father/brother changing details in the english translations (including the title) in order to hastily have them ready to sell for film rights. The translator's blog confirms that his work was changed. He used the name Reg Keeland rather than his real name, Steven T. Murray.

The translator's blog has some interesting details, although they're often hidden in replies to comments.

The english title was chosen by an editor, not the english translator:
http://reg-stieglarssonsenglishtranslator.blogspot.com/2009/01/reg-keeland-on-blogosphere.html?showComment=1273708252195#c7890871675343713969

Their were other changes made to the translation that neither the translator nor Gabrielsson liked, but again, they had no control over that:
http://reg-stieglarssonsenglishtranslator.blogspot.com/2009/01/reg-keeland-on-blogosphere.html?showComment=1277750829825#c2899464230731493481

And I hardly think these books depend on those particular titles for their success. At least the Spanish translations go with the original titles:
http://www.amazon.com/hombres-mujeres-Trilogia-Millennium-Spanish/dp/8423340449?&camp=212361&linkCode=wsw&tag=stieglarssonc-20&creative=384601

[scottakennedy.livejournal.com]

Argh. And left one last tidbit off the previous overlong reply, namely the site setup to support Eva Gabrielsson's legal case:
http://www.supporteva.com/us/

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Very many thanks for all this information, Scott -- excellent stuff. (I've passed it along too to an informal e-mail chat group I belong to, where we'd been discussing the subject, and a couple of its members send their thanks, too.)

The NYT piece is, indeed, splendid. My opinions of Larsson pere and frere have plummeted yet further, something I would not have thought possible. What I cannot understand about them is that, even if they'd always hated Gabrielsson's guts and the feeling been cordially returned, surely sheer human decency would have dictated that she receive a respectable share of the proceeds.

[scottakennedy.livejournal.com]

Glad it was wanted information. There was one other piece I'd read that took me a little longer to recall where it had been. It's from the Guardian, and although it repeats a bit of the NYT info, it also provides more detail on a number of points, the most striking being that Larsson and Gabrielson never married in part to protect him:
Larsson devoted most of his career to fighting the extreme right in Sweden – among other things, he reported on the 1999 murder of the trade unionist Björn Söderberg by Swedish neo-Nazis – and, fearing that attempts would be made on his own life as a result, the couple kept not only their address secret, but their relationship, too (it was always Gabrielsson's name on the door of the one-bedroom apartment). This was why they never married. According to Swedish law, couples who are planning to marry are obliged to publish their address. It was safer just to go on living together, though they did have engraved gold wedding bands, and Eva still wears hers today.
more at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/21/stieg-larsson-eva-gabrielsson