Arnow was born as Harriette Louisa Simpson in Monticello, Wayne County, Kentucky to Elias Thomas Simpson and Mary Jane "Mollie" Denny. She grew up in neighboring Pulaski County. She was one of six siblings in a family that traced its heritage to the Revolutionary War; both parents were teachers and she was raised to be a teacher.[1] Arnow would later credit her father, Elias Thomas Simpson, and her maternal grandmother, Harriette Le Grand Foster Denney for inspiring her desire to write with their storytelling.[2]
She attended Berea College for two years before transferring to the University of Louisville, after which she worked for two years as a teacher and principal in rural Pulaski County, then one of the more remote areas of Appalachia. She spent time teaching at Louisville Junior High School before moving to Cincinnati in 1934.[3] In 1935 she published her first works in Esquire, two short stories, "A Mess of Pork" and "Marigolds and Mules", under the pen name H. L. Simpson, sending a photo of her brother-in-law to disguise her gender.
