Born to a low-ranking priyayi (noble) family in Blora, Dutch East Indies, Kartodikromo's first employment was with the national railway.

The following year he moved to Surakarta and worked with two publications, Saro Tomo and Doenia Bergerak; he soon began to write pieces critical against the Dutch colonial government, which led to his arrest.

Kartodikromo, who preferred writing in Malay, experimented with new phrasings at a time when the state-owned publisher Balai Pustaka was attempting to standardise the language.

According to literary critic Bakri Siregar, he was the first Indonesian writer to openly criticise the Dutch colonial government and the traditional form of feudalism practised in the country.

In 1911 he chose to leave the company as he was disgusted by its racist policies, including the use of race as a basis for the amount paid in wages.

[2] Kartodikromo made his way to Bandung, West Java, where he found employment at Medan Prijaji, a newspaper run by Tirto Adhi Soerjo.

The paper was the mouthpiece of the Native Indonesian Journalists' Group (Inlandse Journalisten Bond), which Kartodikromo led[5] and had helped establish with Tjipto Mangoenkoesoemo and Darnakoesoemo.

[2] That same year, he published the three-volume work Mata Gelap (Dark Eyes); this led to a long polemic between Doenia Bergerak and the Chinese-owned Tjoen Tjioe in Surabaya due to perceived racism.

[10] While the state-owned publisher Balai Pustaka was attempting to standardise Malay, Kartodikromo experimented with the language, using words, phrases, and scenes which had never before been used.

[1] Kartodikromo himself enjoyed baiting the colonial government, reportedly inviting his readers to work together and criticise the Dutch for their "mismanagement and caprice".

[17] Hendrik Maier, a lecturer at Leiden University, writes that Kartodikromo was "primarily inspired by dreams and ideals",[3] noting that the writer intended to create a community of politically aware Indonesians to work against the colonial government in solidarity and equality.