Including A Never-Before-Published Pencil Drawing by Stieg Larsson
and A Personal Document – In His Possession Until His Death – The Author’s Original Rejection Letter from Journalism School
Sothebys London announce the sale of a unique, exquisitely leather-bound boxed set of Stieg Larsson’s internationally bestselling and award-winning Millennium Trilogy as part of the English Literature Sale on 15th December 2011. Estimated at £8,000-12,000*, the one-of-a-kind set, comprising The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, includes the original letter of rejection sent to a young Larsson in 1972 by the Joint Committee of Colleges of Journalism. Larsson kept this letter among his personal possessions until his death, and it reveals, overleaf, an original pencil portrait by the author himself which has never before been seen by the public. Stieg Larsson’s drawing skills are well documented, but his drawings have not previously been published. This document has been donated by the author’s family specifically to be included with this boxed set, the sale of which will benefit Expo, the anti-discrimination foundation set up in 1995 by Larsson and his peers. Larsson served as president of the foundation as well as editor-in-chief of Expo magazine until his death in 2004.
The Estate of Stieg Larsson, namely Stieg Larsson’s father and brother, comment on the sale: ‘We are greatly impressed by this beautiful one-off binding of The Millennium Trilogy, intricately designed to reflect the contents of the books. It is not only a collector’s piece that can be described as an homage to the publishing phenomenon that Stieg’s books became following his death, but very importantly its sale will benefit an organisation he believed in deeply. It gives Stieg’s brother and myself great pleasure to know that Expo will benefit from funds that will enable the foundation and magazine to continue their hugely important work.
Stieg Larsson The celebrated Scandinavian writer was, during his lifetime, renowned in Sweden as a campaigning journalist and dedicated political activist, a polymath who counted photography and science fiction among his avid interests. Stieg Larsson was a political journalist and graphics specialist for 20 years at a Swedish news agency but also conducted extensive independent research on right-wing extremism in Sweden, culminating in the 1991 publication of his first book, Extremhögern (Right-Wing Extremism).
The Millennium Trilogy Since its first publication, almost 65 million copies have been sold worldwide in almost 50 countries, with 7 million copies sold in the Nordic countries alone. Inspired by his lifelong loathing of sexual violence towards women, as well as his experience as a journalist and editor, Larsson wrote and submitted the manuscripts of the first three (of what was intended ultimately to be 10) novels in the Millennium series to various publishers before his sudden death.
