[3] She moved to France as a young adult, founding the journal Echanges, which attempted to give British and French writers an audience for each other's work.

However, Harper objected to him being called a "failure" and to Lancaster's emphasis on his homosexuality which she considered to be an "illness" and something that should not be drawn attention to.

The Des Moines Register wrote that her autobiographical, All Trivial Fond Records, "may well be the most charming book of the year.

"[3] The Chicago Tribune wrote that "Miss Harper's account of her Edwardian childhood and Georgian youth is one of the most delightful we have read in a long time.

"[8] A New York Times reviewer, Michiko Kakutani, found fault with her editing on Edith Sitwell: Fire of the Mind.