Newton P. Stallknecht was born in East Orange, New Jersey, on October 24, 1906. He went to Princeton to study philosophy, earning his A.B. in 1927, A.M. in 1928, and Ph.D. in 1930. While earning his degrees at Princeton, he did additional study at the University of Edinburgh from 1928-29 and at the University of Freiburg in 1929 and the summer of 1932. After graduating from Princeton, Stallknecht became a member of the Philosophy Department at Bowdoin College. During World War II, he served in Washington with the Army Security Agency. In 1949, he came to Indiana University as Professor of Philosophy and Chairman of the Philosophy Department. That same year, he also became a member of the Comparative Literature Program. In 1952, he was appointed Fellow of the School of Letters and then promoted to Director of the program in 1953, which he continued to serve as until he resigned in 1972. (See Collection 36, Indiana University School of Letters - Director's records, 1949-79.) Simultaneously, Stallknecht continued to serve as professor of both philosophy and comparative literature until 1968 when he was transferred out of the Philosophy Department at his own request. According to Stallknecht, the Comparative Literature Program and the School of Letters "afforded [him] a more congenial milieu for the work that [he] found most important."

Stallknecht's interests and publications naturally combine his endeavors in both philosophy and comparative literature. In philosophy, his works focus primarily on Kant, Bergson and Whitehead, and in literature on the interpretation of English romantic poetry and criticism, emphasizing the work of Wordsworth and Coleridge. In addition to articles and reviews in philosophical and literary journals, his major publications include: Studies in the Philosophy of Creation (1934), Strange Seas of Thought: Studies in William Wordsworth's Philosophy of Man and Nature (1945), The Spirit of Western Philosophy: A Historical Interpretation (1950), The Compass of Philosophy: An Essay in Intellectual Orientation (1954), and Comparative Literature: Method and Perspective (1961). His other professional activities involved membership in The Modern Language Association of America, The American Philosophical Association, and The American Society for Aesthetics. He also served as president of the Metaphysical Society of America, 1955-56 and as a member of the Princeton Alumni Advisory Council, 1941-65.

Stallknecht retired from Indiana University in 1977. He was given Professor Emeritus status for Comparative Literature and Criticism and continued to teach summer courses for the Honor Division until 1980. He died May 23, 1981.