For 22 years, Hapgood wrote for the New York Evening Post and the Nation, as a journalist, foreign correspondent and editorial writer. In 1893 Hapgood reviewed a book by Kate Marsden which described her journey across Russia to find a cure for leprosy. She picked the book to pieces and cast Marsden as "an adventuress" who was only trying to help "her lepers". The Royal Geographical Society lauded Marsden, but Hapgood discounted her efforts. Hapgood wrote to everyone from Queen Victoria down warning them about Kate Marsden. One scholar later speculated that Hapgood was jealous of Marsden writing about "her" country or because of homophobic rumours about Marsden.