Helen Foster Snow was born on September 21, 1907 in Cedar City, Utah. She attended West High School. After graduating, she attended the University of Utah. She took the civil service exam, gained a position in China, and moved to Shanghai in August 1931. After arriving in China Helen met Edgar Snow, a reporter also from the U.S. The two were married on December 25, 1933 in Tokyo, Japan. The couple moved to Peking where Helen Foster Snow attended and Edgar taught at Yanjing University. From there they published information regarding the Manchurian incident. Helen Foster and Edgar Snow sympathized with the students who protested the government and its complacency toward Japanese invasion. They helped plan the December movements, and covered events censored in Chinese papers.

Helen published an interview with Zhang Xueliang, a general, who expressed support for communists, contradicting Chiang Kai-shek. In 1937 Edgar and Helen published the magazine Democracy. She worked on the editorial board to editor, and then the editor while Edgar wrote Red Star over China.

Snow entered the communist camp in April 1937, where she interviewed leaders, women, and children of the camp. She would publish her findings in her book Inside Red China in 1938. Helen later toured the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives and wrote to raise support of the initiatives. Helen returned to the United States, living in Madison, Connecticut and travelling the world. Helen died on January 11, 1997.