Born in Massachusetts in 1922, Eric Larrabee graduated cum laude from Harvard in 1943. For his service during World War II in Tank Destroyers and in Military Intelligence, he was awarded a Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Ribbon.
He has since been continuously active—as author, editor, professor, and member of various boards, councils, and panels of the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York Council for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
He has been associate editor of Harper’s Magazine (1946–58), then managing editor of American Heritage (1958–61), managing editor of Horizon (1961–63), and editorial consultant to Doubleday & Company (1963–69). As well as being a regular contributor of articles and reviews to national magazines, he has written and edited several books on art and American society. He was Provost of the Faculty of Arts and Letters at SUNY Buffalo, has taught there and at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University, and is now Dean of Arts and Design at Pratt Institute.
He and his wife, an architect, live in New York City and own a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Buffalo, New York.