In 1898, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he covered the administration of William McKinley as a newspaper reporter and then changed his first name to "Garet", which he pronounced the same as "Garrett."

Garrett wrote 13 books: Where the Money Grows (1911), The Blue Wound (1921), The Driver (1922), The Cinder Buggy (1923), Satan's Bushel (1924), Ouroboros, or the Mechanical Extension of Mankind (1926), Harangue (1927), The American Omen (1928), A Bubble That Broke the World (1932), A Time Is Born (1944), The Wild Wheel (1952), The People's Pottage (1953) and The American Story (1955).

"Rise of Empire" argues that America has become an imperial state, incompatible with Garrett's views, "a constitutional, representative, limited government in the republican form.

"[citation needed] Garet Garrett was married three times: to Bessie Hamilton in 1900, to Ida Irvin in 1908, and to Dorothy Williams Goulet in 1947.

He died November 6, 1954, at his home in the Tuckahoe section of Upper Township, New Jersey, while inspecting the proofs of The American Story.

[citation needed] Garett was called a conservative in his obituary, and after his death, his book The People's Pottage was adopted as one of the "twelve candles" of the John Birch Society.