The Battle Over Words
Awhile ago, I wrote about Stieg Larsson’s books, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and his sequels and how impressed I was with his ability to write a page turning novel. As many of his fans know, there’s a battle now going on about who owns the words that were left behind on his laptop. Words that could be turned into a fourth novel. His common-law wife, Eva Gabrielsson, 
is battling his father and brother for the rights. Her picture, as shown here, is part of an article, The Wife With the Angry Memoir in Maclean’s Magazine . She claims that much of what was written was based on what she and Stieg went through in “their joint leftist and feminist advocacy”.
The fact that Stieg Larsson’s words in his Millennium trilogy have reached an audience of over 40 million and the money is still flowing in with an American film following the Swedish ones, is something to fight about. Swedish law recognizes the author’s life partner as far as the laptop is concerned but the rest is debatable, simply because in Sweden, common law unions do not have the same rights as married ones. If only Stieg could speak from the grave, I think he’d set the record straight and give Eva her due.
Hi, Diana,
Just stopped by to say hello and read your timely piece on marriage and family and who gets what and, well, it has actually been the topic of the day for me for some reason!
I think we get so hung up, personally and as a society, in requiring that people be married to be considered really committed. Now, that said, if we aren’t going to allow the state (or country) to govern our affairs, we need to take care of things legally to make sure things go the way we want them to (now, let’s all go out and do it!).
Anyway, I’ve thought a lot about this because I really don’t ever want to be married again. But the thing that always comes back to me is making sure that the chosen person would be considered the next of kin in all aspects. There is a way to do all this, and I think that with more and more couples choosing “I Don’t” it is a great option, we need to really make it a common and comfortable.
And, while we’re at it, if we could come up with a good term for our “more than friend” friend, I’ll be the first to promote it. Partner’s the best I’ve com e up with but it leaves a lot to be desired. Partner in business? Partner in crime? Partner for square dancing? What?
Great post! I’m so glad I stopped by!