Lon Tinkle

Julien Lon Tinkle (March 20, 1906 – January 11, 1980) was a historian, author, book critic, and professor who specialized in the history of Texas. Tinkle spent most of his life in Dallas, Texas (United States), where he graduated from and later taught at Southern Methodist University. In 1942 he became a book editor and critic for the Dallas Morning News. His first book, Thirteen Days to Glory: The Siege of the Alamo, was published in 1958. The book was well received and was later adapted into a made-for-television movie. Tinkle won awards for this book, and a for biography that he wrote of historian J. Frank Dobie. He is the namesake of the Texas Institute of Letters' lifetime achievement award.

Tinkle was born in Dallas, Texas on March 20, 1906 to James Ward Tinkle and Mary (née Garden hire) Tinkle. He attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1927 and a Master of Arts degree in 1932. Tinkle then moved to Paris, where he studied at the Sorbonne. After earning a degree from the Sorbonne in 1933, Tinkle spent some time doing post-graduate work at Columbia University. On December 27, 1939 he married Maria Ofelia Garza; they had three sons.

After completing his post-graduate work, Tinkle accepted a position as an instructor at his alma mater, Southern Methodist University. He eventually became the school's E. A. Lilly Professor of Literature. In 1942 he began working as a book editor and critic for the Dallas Morning News. According to Evelyn Oppenheimer in her book A Book Lover in Texas, after Tinkle became the book editor, "book reviewing in The Dallas Morning News rose to a level of notable quality and was nationally recognized".

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