Murdock Pemberton was the first art critic for the New Yorker, beginning in 1925. Before coming to New York, Mr. Pemberton worked as a reporter for The Emporia Gazette in Kansas City, The Kansas City Star and The Philadelphia North America. In addition to being a "gadfly" on the art scene, Mr. Pemberton began inadvertantly the tradition of the literary lunch at the Algonquin Hotel by bringing John Peter Toohey, a press agent, to dine with Alexander Woolcott.