She was born on May 11, 1875, in Arcadia Township, Manistee County, Michigan. After her family moved to San Francisco, California, in the early 1900s, she became a journalist. Harriet Quimby's public life began in 1902, when she began writing for the "San Francisco Dramatic Review" and also contributed to the Sunday editions of the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Call. She moved to Manhattan, New York City in 1903 to work as a theater critic for "Leslie's Illustrated Weekly" and more than 250 of her articles were published over a nine-year period.