Murdock Pemberton was born in Emporia, Kansas on April 6, 1888 to Albert and Ella (Murdock) Pemberton. He was the youngest of four children. He had two sisters, Ruth and Irene, and one brother, Brock.

Murdock Pemberton started working for the Emporia Gazette as a printer's devil (a step below an apprentice) when he was 10 years old, eventually working his way up to reporter. He graduated from Emporia High School in 1906 and attended the College of Emporia. He also worked as a reporter for the Kansas City Star and the Philadelphia North American before following his brother Brock to New York and working for the Globe in 1915. Pemberton enlisted in the Navy from 1917-1918 during the United States' involvement with World War I.

Pemberton became the press agent for the Hippodrome Theatre following WWI. In 1919 he inadvertently started the Algonquin Round Table luncheons at the Algonquin Hotel, a literary group of writers, editors, actors, publicists, and others that included Dorothy Parker, Heywood Broun, Harpo Marx, Frank Sullivan, Peggy Wood, Alexander Woollcott, and others. It was here Pemberton met Harold Ross, who in 1925 asked him to write art criticism for his new magazine, the New Yorker. Pemberton wrote for the New Yorker until 1932 when he was fired because he wrote a tepid review of an artist who, unbeknownst to him, was the wife of the magazine's art director.

Pemberton wrote a musical titled Sing High, Sing Low, which ran on Broadway from 1931 to 1932. He also wrote for Esquire magazine as a wine and food critic. He wrote introductions to multiple artists' exhibition catalogs, and he wrote and contributed to multiple books, including Rebels of Art: Manet to Matisse and Modern Art Picture Book (1939).

Pemberton returned to the New Yorker in the 1950s after having a difficult time finding jobs as a writer. In the 1960s he retired from full-time writing.

Murdock Pemberton married Helen Katherine Tower on April 29, 1916. They had two children, Katherine and Murdock Jr., often referred to by his middle name, Tower. Helen died in 1968. That year, Pemberton married his longtime mistress, Frances Mahan, whose stage name was Frances Mann. Frances died a year later in 1969. Murdock Pemberton passed away on August 21, 1982.

Brock Pemberton was Murdock Pemberton's elder brother, born on December 14, 1885 in Leavenworth, Kansas. He graduated from Emporia High School and attended the College of Emporia for three years before transferring to the University of Kansas, graduating from K.U. in 1908 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. While at K.U. Brock Pemberton was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. After graduation he worked as a reporter for the Emporia Gazette.

Brock Pemberton took a job as a drama critic for the New York Evening Mail in 1911. He then went to work for the New York Times in 1914 as a drama critic and an assistant to Alexander Woollcott.

Brock produced his first play, Enter Madame, in 1920. Over the next 30 years, he would produce 37 shows. His most well-known play was Harvey, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Mary Chase. It premiered on November 1, 1944 and closed after 1,775 performances on January 15, 1949.

Brock Pemberton and Antoinette Perry were long-time friends and co-workers. They both were founders of the American Theatre Wing. Perry directed many of the plays Brock produced, including Harvey. After Perry's death in 1946, a committee of the American Theatre Wing, headed by Brock, created the Antoinette Perry Award of Excellence in Theatre, bettern known as the Tony, in her honor. Brock was the host of the first awards, and when he gave the first recipient their award, he said "Here is your Tony" (Antoinette's nickname), and the name remained. Brock was given a special Tony Award after his death in 1950 for being the founder of the awards and its original chairman.

Brock Pemberton helped establish USO shows for the military during World War II and organized a canteen in San Francisco in 1944. He was also a member of the Algonquin Round Table.

Brock Pemberton married Margaret McCoy in 1915. She was the costumer for most of his plays and was active in war work during the war. Brock Pemberton died on March 11, 1950 in New York City.

Sally Pemberton was Senior Executive Vice President - Singapore for the international Bnp Paribas banking entreprise and a marketing and business development consultant in the Chicago, Illinois area, before she began researching and writing a biography of her grandfather, Portrait of Murdock Pemberton - The New Yorker's First Art Critic, published through Picture Book Press in 2011. She was also co-founder of ADventure (Architecture Design Venture), a multi-disciplinary design program for African American inner city high school students in Chicago. She earned her Mba from New York University.