[1][2] Edward McNeil Farmer was born on February 23, 1901, in Los Angeles, California.
[2] Farmer continued his studies at the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design in San Francisco.[when?
][1] Farmer and his wife Mabel studied at the Art Students League of New York in 1929 and 1930, with George Bridgman, Charles Locke, Dimitri Romanovsky, and Jan Matulka.
[4] His first wife Mabel died in 1956, he remarried Arbie Stewart Farmer (née Scott) and remained married until his death.
[2] Farmer died after a heart attack on August 20, 1969, in his Palo Alto, California, home.