Gauntier had sailed to Europe frequently where her sister Marguerite was an opera singer who had trained and worked in Germany, and found herself stranded there when World War I broke out. After leaving filmmaking, she worked as the film and drama critic for the "Kansas City Post" in 1919, before returning to live in Europe where she remained for a number of years while writing her autobiography, "Blazing the Trail". The work was serialized in 1928–29 in the American magazine, "Woman's Home Companion", and the manuscript is on display in the Film Library of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Gauntier also penned two novels, "Cabbages and Harlequins" in 1929 and "Sporting Lady" in 1933.