She is noted for her articles about the coal mining industry, particularly the management-labor strife during the late 19th century.

[3][4][5] Her father, an abolitionist and merchant, died of a heart attack in 1844, leaving the family financially challenged.

[1] Interested in writing, she published poetry in the Boston True Flag, The Saturday Evening Post, and journals by the beginning of the American Civil War.

[2][6] After 1872, Susan worked in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, covering stories about the labor and management strife in the coal mining industry.

[1] She took long trips up and down the valley in quest of information... pushing her way like a messenger of light among the grime and dust of coal breakers, the roar of machinery, or along the subterranean chambers of the mine... she feels it is her duty even in the ordinary pursuit of life to be doing good—righting some wrong, correcting some error, suggesting some reform by which men and women would be their better selves.She also wrote about women's rights, the suffrage movement, art, and history by 1880.

[1][6] She was said in the Wyoming Valley History (1880) to have done "more than any other writer to present to the world the bright and best side of life in the coal regions.

[1] When Anna purchased a house on Locust Street in Philadelphia, Dickinson became a caretaker for her mother and managed the household, while also writing essays for newspapers.

[1] She was described as "witty, intuitive and incisive in speech" by Susan B. Anthony, one of the people in Anna's social circle.

Others that visited the Dickinson home were Henry Ward Beecher, Horace Greeley and Whitelaw Reid.

After 1872, Susan and her mother moved to West Pittston, Pennsylvania, where she was able to build a successful career as a journalist.

[1] Anna moved into her mother and sister's house in 1883,[3][14] having had problems with mental instability and illness.

[15][16] Mary remained a Quaker her entire life, but Susan converted to the Episcopal religion when she was a young woman.