She was born in New York and at the age of 20 she married the pianist and composer Gustav L. Becker in 1893.
She died at her daughter's house, in Epsom, Surrey, England, in April 1958, aged 84.
May Lamberton Becker made her name as a literary critic and for more than forty years wrote a weekly 'Readers Guide', first with the New York Evening Post, then with the Saturday Review of Literature and finally in the weekly book section of the New York Herald Tribune, of which she later became literary editor.
In May 1960 T. S. Eliot dedicated the reading room of the National Book League, Albemarle Street, London, to her memory, "in gratitude for her inspiration and friendly guidance".
The work was funded and furnished by British and American friends and admirers (though the principal donor was her daughter).