Hélène Smith

Hélène Smith was a famous late-19th century French medium. She was known as "the Muse of Automatic Writing" by the Surrealists, who viewed Smith as evidence of the power of the surreal, and a symbol of surrealist knowledge. Late in life, Smith claimed to communicate with Martians, and to be a reincarnation of a Hindu princess and Marie Antoinette.

9 December 1861

Born on the same birth day (9 December): Baldassare Ferri • Bixente Lizarazu • Clancy Eccles • Dennis Dunaway • Dobroslav Paraga • Elisabeth Schwarzkopf • James Rainwater • Joe McGinniss • Lorenzo Wright • Mario Cantone • Mehmet Ali Birand • Michael Foster (musician) • Neil Innes • Peter Pelham (composer) • Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi • Ryder Hesjedal • Simon Helberg • Wil Besseling

Born in the same month (December 1861): Antonio de La Gándara • Charles Duryea • Edgar P. Rucker • Ferdinand Bonn • Frederick Eveleigh-de-Moleyns, 5th Baron Ventry • Georges Méliès • Henri Mathias Berthelot • Ivana Kobilca • Konstantin Korovin • Lionel Monckton • Madan Mohan Malaviya • William C. Durant