Tuttle was born on April 5, 1915, in Rutland, Vermont, United States of America. His father, Charles E. Tuttle, Senior, published African-American literature and dealt in rare books, and also worked closely with the Vermont Historical Society.
Tuttle attended local schools, the Phillips Exeter Academy, and Harvard University for his education. At university, he studied American history and literature.
Belonging to a family long associated with publishing, he travelled to in a military role at the end of World World War II, and established a publishing company there. Many of his company"s books on Asian martial arts, particularly those on ese martial arts, were the first widely read publications on these subjects in the English language. His family had long been involved in printing books and stationery, dating from the mid-19th century in the United States, and tracing their history back to Richard Tottel in the late 16th century in London.
After graduating in 1937, he worked in the library of Columbia University for a year, then joined the family business.
In 1943, Tuttle"s father died and, with World World War II in progress, he enlisted in the United States Army. He completed officer training and, when the war ended, was selected as part of the Allied forces occupying He arrived in Tokyo in October 1945, expecting to take charge of the library of the Diet of (as he had been ordered), only to find that General Douglas MacArthur"s staff had changed his assignment.
He spent the next two years helping the ese newspaper industry. In 1947, Tuttle met Reiko Chiba, who belonged to a wealthy ese family from Hokkaidō.
The two were married in 1951.
Tuttle founded his publishing company in Tokyo in 1948, with the mission to publish "books to span the East and West." His company was the 31st corporation approved by the occupying administration. In its first year of operation, it imported and distributed United States paperback publications to the occupying forces, and the next year, it released its first publication. In 1951, the company began an intensive publishing program, producing English translations of contemporary ese literature, dictionaries of ese and other Asian languages, books on ese art and culture, and books on ese martial arts
Notably, many of its books on Asian martial arts were the first widely read publications on these subjects in the English language.
In 1971, the Association of American Publishers named Tuttle as its Publisher of the Year. Through the late 1980s, Tuttle focused on the rare book business.
Reiko Tuttle continued to run Tuttle Antiquarian Books until 2001, when she sold the business to two long-serving Tuttle company employees. She died on April 14, 2006, in Tokyo.
Reflecting on the couple"s contribution to Vermont, J. Kevin Graffagnino, Executive Director of the Vermont Historical Society, wrote: "Charles and Reiko Tuttle epitomized Vermont’s tradition of making a difference without fanfare or self-congratulation.".
