Background
Tinker was born on October 22, 1876 in Auburn, Maine to Anson Phelps Tinker, a Yale graduate and minister, and Martha White.
Tinker was born on October 22, 1876 in Auburn, Maine to Anson Phelps Tinker, a Yale graduate and minister, and Martha White.
He attended East Denver High School, then went to Yale to receive a Bachelor (1899), Master of Arts (1900), and Doctor of Philosophy (1902), after which he joined the school"s faculty. His early work, completed in collaboration with Albert Stanburrough Cook, focused on Old English literature, while the remainder of his career focused on eighteenth century English literary scholarship, including that of Samuel Johnson and his principal biographer, James Boswell.
In 1923, he was made Sterling Professor of English Literature, and remained at the university until 1945. At Yale, Tinker was instrumental in establishing a rare books collection, of which he was named the curator in 1931, and in founding the Elizabethan Club. As a faculty member, Tinker was known as an opponent of New Criticism.
He died on March 10,1963 and is buried at Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut.