Smith, Helen Ainslie

Author and translator.

Helen Ainslie Smith was born in Orange, New Jersey, in 1857 to Mr. and Mrs. Walter E. Smith. In March of 1893 she married James H. Elliott of New York. After her marriage, Smith continued to use her maiden name in her literary work. Smith authored several well-known books, including The Great Cities of the Ancient World, under the pseudonym "Hazel Shepard" (1885); The Great Cities of the Modern World (1885); One Hundred Famous Americans (1886); Bird and Fishes (1886); Stories of Persons and Places in America (1888); History of Japan in Words of One Syllable (1898); and The Thirteen Colonies, 2v (1901). She traveled extensively between 1901-1919, visiting Italy, Spain, France, and Algiers, among other places. Smith had one daughter, Pauline "Paula" Gerard, who worked as an artist. Helen Ainslie Smith died in 1932.