She first wrote using pseudonyms (including the patrician-sounding "Foxcroft Davis" - the novels Mrs. Darrell and The Whirl - and the Russian "Vera Sapoukhyn") until the publication of her short story Maid Marian in 1886, a tale she later dramatized for actress Rosina Vokes.
Her literary production included forty books of fiction, collected short fiction, and non-fiction, as well as numerous political columns from Washington for New York dailies and essays.