[2][3] According to her obituary in The New York Times, she was "a witty writer with an acute social concern, [and] was compared to Dorothy Parker and H. L.
She wrote two books inspired by her experiences volunteering as a hostess at the racially-integrated Stage Door Canteen in Times Square: a novel, Some of My Best Friends Are Soldiers, and Color Blind: A White Woman Looks at the Negro.
The latter was banned in Georgia and favorably reviewed by Margaret Mead.The Pseudo-Ethic: A Speculation on American Politics and Morals was a defense of Alger Hiss.
With his help, she became an entry-level employee at Simon & Schuster According to a statement at the end of With Malice Toward Some, she wrote: "In 1936-37, Margaret Halsey took an M.A.
Her letters to American relatives and friends inspired her brother-in-law, the publisher Richard L. Simon, to ask that she write what would become With Malice Toward Some.