Repplier was reportedly expelled from two schools for "independent behaviour" and illiterate until the age of ten.

[2] She received mentoring in writing by a nun who was herself a noted writer, Mary Paulina Finn, who published books, poetry and plays under the pseudonym M. S.

[4] Despite her school experiences, she became one of America's chief representatives of the discursive essay,[5] displaying wide reading and apt quotation.

These characteristics were already apparent in the first essay which she contributed to the Atlantic Monthly (April 1886), entitled “Children, Past and Present.”[6] Repplier's earliest national publications appeared in 1881 in Catholic World.

Although she did write several biographies and some fiction, early in her career she decided to concentrate on essays, and for 50 years she enjoyed a national reputation.