Known for her humor in her writing as well as performance, she was a contemporary and friend of Mark Twain, who called her "the only woman humorist in America".

[3] She attended the Sylvanus Reed school in New York and studied voice with a teacher named Toriani in Paris.

[8] Critic Maggie B. Gale, comparing Fisk to Beatrice Herford, argues that both adopted an "anthropological perspective" on "social types" of the time.

[11] Julia Hans argues that "Fisk expresses women's discontent through a mask of humor at a time when popular writers idealized feminine felicity and passivity".

[19] In 1943, Fisk began working as a real estate developer of lots in Redondo Beach, California.