
Hunt wrote stories as a child and was influenced by her father, a doctor who loved word games and books. Hunt had written over 30 books and short stories at her death. She wrote her first book Lucinda, A Little Girl of 1860 (1934) based on her mother's experiences as a Quaker girl living in Indiana.

She worked as a librarian at the Indianapolis Public Library from 1926-1938, when she resigned to write books full time. After his death she attended DePauw University, in Greencastle, Indiana, for two years (1910-1912) and received a year of library training at Western University Library School in Cleveland, Ohio (1923).
