They settled in the San Francisco Bay area, where Hadden's uncle, William Kingston Vickery, was a noted art dealer.

She graduated from Oakland High School in 1894, and, like most of her siblings, attended Stanford University, though she may not have completed a degree program there.

[8] She acquired and delivered books and maps,[9] sometimes hiking or riding a horse or mule to remote locations,[10][11] and encouraged local history collections at county branches, because she believed that helped integrate the library into the community.

[3] Hadden made literary contacts in the arts colony at Carmel-by-the-Sea, including writers Lincoln Steffens, Robinson Jeffers, and Mary Hunter Austin.

After her sister's death in 1949 Anne Hadden lived in Forest Hills Manor.