Her father was an Irish-born Canadian surgeon and a veteran of the Union Army in the American Civil War.

[9] Kincaid worked as a journalist in Washington state as a young woman,[10] especially at The Westerner, a regional literary magazine.

[11] She was founding co-editor Japan Magazine, an English-language monthly launched in 1910[12] as the official publication of the Tokyo Industrial Association.

[13] Her first article for Japan Magazine was a profile of meteorologist Itaru Nonaka [ja] and his wife Chiyoko, who maintained a weather station on Mount Fuji.

[18][22] She worked with a translator to adapt two kabuki plays by Kido Okamoto, published as The Human Pillar and The Mask-Maker.