Yezierska was born circa October 19, 1885, in Plinsk, a town on the Russian-Polish border. Around 1892, the family immigrated to the United States, where they settled among other Eastern European Jewish immigrants in New York City's Lower East Side. Yezierska worked in a sweatshop and at other menial jobs during the day. In the evenings, she went to school to learn to read and write English.

At some point, she came to the attention of a group of German-Jewish women who helped immigrant girls obtain an education. With their help, she won a scholarship to study domestic science at Columbia University. She earned her certificate to teach in 1904 but found that she disliked this career.

After a brief marriage that was subsequently annulled, Yezierska married again and had a daughter in 1912. However, discovering that she was not suited to married life, she moved to California with her daughter...