[1] She graduated from the Fieldston School in New York City and earned her bachelor's degree in 1948 from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

[3] In 1956 she began writing a regular column for The Berkshire Eagle while living in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, continuing this endeavor for the next 12 years.

[4][6] She also penned articles for The Atlantic Monthly, Redbook, and McCall's magazines, and submitted book reviews to various publications.

[2][6] Seton did not use feminist rhetoric, but instead adopted "a graceful and ironic style laced with compassion for women struggling to find expression and for the men in their lives".

[2] She explained in an interview: I want to write about husbands who may be obtuse, but who are not brutes, and remind their wives that there is a great deal to hang in there for.

[1][2][6] She was also noted for her "precise, elegant prose", which Seton herself credited to the influence of works by George Eliot and Marcel Proust; she read the latter in the original French.