The summer after her first year teaching at the Orton School she returned home to the Shattucks' farm to spend some time in thought and peace. There Stanley Rossiter Benedict, an engineer at Cornell Medical College, began to visit her at the farm. She had met him by chance in Buffalo, New York around 1910. That summer Ruth fell deeply in love with Stanley as he began to visit her more, and accepted his proposal for marriage. Invigorated by love, she undertook several writing projects in order to keep busy besides the everyday housework chores in her new life with Stanley. She began to publish poems under different pseudonyms—Ruth Stanhope, Edgar Stanhope, and Anne Singleton. She also began work on writing a biography about Mary Wollstonecraft and other lesser-known women that she felt deserved more acknowledgement for their work and contributions. By 1918 the couple began to drift apart. Stanley suffered an injury that made him want to spend more time away from the city, and Benedict was not happy when the couple moved to Bedford Hills far away from the city.