Hapgood became a major translator of French and Russian literature, as well as a key figure in the dialogue between Western Christianity and Orthodoxy. She helped Harvard professor Francis James Child with his Book of Ballads which began publication in 1882. In 1885 Hapgood published her own Epic Songs of Russia, for which Child supplied a preface, and which received several good reviews. The next year Hapgood published translations of Leo Tolstoy’s "Childhood, Boyhood, Youth" and Nikolay Gogol’s "Taras Bulba" and "Dead Souls." In 1887 her translations of the major works of Victor Hugo began publication, introducing that major French author to American audiences.