Her family origins lay in Maghera, County Londonderry, Ireland.
Martin was born in New York state and studied at Columbia University.
In 1925, she left for Europe and lived in France and Switzerland.
In 1926, she moved to Tunisia where she met her future husband Harry Shokler (1896-1978), an American artist and print-maker.
Martin's most famous book Among the Faithful was first published in London in 1937, in New York in 1943 as "I Know Tunisia" and is still in print.