Anemone's Research Emporium

Famous historical figures speculated to have an autistic spectrum disorder or to have autistic-like traits

These are all (or should be) people who have been dead for a while. I am not willing to discuss people currently alive or recently dead. The living can speak for themselves, even if they have autism. The recently dead should be left alone out of respect for their survivors.

I vote yes, maybe, probably

These people are either people I've read biographical material on myself, or they're people who've been written up convincingly by others.

Henry Cavendish (outside link)
Paul Cézanne
Greta Garbo
Glenn Gould
Moe Norman (outside link)

I vote no

These people are all people I've read biographical material on, and I'm not convinced. I'm not going to explain myself for all of them, but the explanations I do provide should give you an idea of the criteria I'm using.

Hans Christian Andersen
Beethoven
John Denver
Albert Einstein
Bill Gates
Adolf Hitler
Michelangelo
Marilyn Monroe
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Andy Warhol

Gifted people not on the spectrum, for comparison

Nicolaus Steno

My criteria

Some other lists I've come across, both good and bad

Internet

Wikipedia: People speculated to have been autistic
Wikipedia: People on the autism spectrum
Famous People with Aspergers syndrome, Michelle Fattig, 2007-12-2
Famous people with autistic traits, richardg_uk@yahoo.com, updated 2002-01-29
Undiagnosing Gates, Jefferson and Einstein, Jonathan Mitchell, 2004

Books

Fitzgerald, Michael, 2004. Autism and creativity: Is there a link between autism in men and exceptional ability? Brunner-Routledge, Hove and New York

Fitzgerald, Michael, 2005. The genesis of artistic creativity: Asperger's Syndrome and the arts. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London and Philadelphia.

Temple Grandin, 1995/2006. Thinking in pictures: And other reports from my life with autism. With a foreword by Oliver Sacks. Vintage Books, NY.

Autism versus personality

See here to see how I typed these people with respect to goddess/god archetypes. You'll have to dig through the examples to find them but they all should have asterixes next to their names. As far as I know, there isn't any reason one way or the other to assume autistic people are more commonly some types than others. There simply isn't enough information to begin to speculate in an informed way.

Historical figures I think were autistic, by personality type

Persephone: Greta Garbo
Dionysus: Glenn Gould
Hades: Paul Cezanne

Historical figures I don't think were autistic, even though others do, by type

Aphrodite: Marilyn Monroe
Zeus: Bill Gates
Hades: Beethoven
Poseidon: Albert Einstein
Hermes: John Denver, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Andy Warhol
Hepaestus: Michelangelo
Dionysus: Hans Christian Andersen, Adolf Hitler