Her father, John Tyler Seawell, a prominent lawyer and orator, was pivotal at influencing her learning. For instance, being a student of the classics himself, he only allowed her to read history, encyclopedias, William Shakespeare and Romantic poems. It was not until she was 17 that she was allowed to read a novel. Her first being The Vicar of Wakefield by Goldsmith.

She first wrote using pseudonyms until the publication of her short story Maid Marian in 1886, a tale she later dramatized.

Her first novel, Hale-Weston, published in 1889, was widely read and translated into German.

Seawell’s fiction may be distinguished into three genres: regional fiction, romances, and books for boys (primarily nautical stories).

Her literary production included forty books of fiction, collected short fiction, non-fiction, and numerous political columns from Washington for New York dailies and essays.

Seawell was widely read in her time and, at the beginning of the 20th century, was included in standard reference works on American writers.