S. E. Hinton

Susan Eloise Hinton (born July 22, 1948) is an American writer best known for her young-adult novels (YA) set in Oklahoma, especially The Outsiders (1967), which she wrote during high school.Template:Efn Hinton is credited with introducing the YA genre.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She graduated from the University of Tulsa.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1988, she received the inaugural Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association for her cumulative contribution in writing for teens.<ref name=edwards/>Template:Efn

Early life

Susan Eloise Hinton was born on July 22, 1948 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her father, Grady, was a door-to-door salesman and her mother, Lillian, was a factory worker.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> Lillian was physically and emotionally abusive, throwing one of Hinton's early manuscripts in a trash burner (though she allowed her to rescue them); and Hinton described Grady as "an extremely cold man."<ref name=":0" />

Growing up, she and her family attended a "fundamentalist, hellfire and brimstone" church, which she disliked deeply and turned her away from religion as an adult.<ref name=":0" /> Grady developed a brain tumor when Hinton was 15 and died when she was in her junior year of high school.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref>

Career

1960s: The Outsiders

While still in her teens,Template:Efn Hinton wrote The Outsiders, her first and most popular novel, set in Oklahoma in the 1960s. She began writing it in 1965.<ref name=faq/> The book was inspired by two rival gangs at her school, Will Rogers High School,<ref name=smith/> the Greasers and the Socs,<ref name=italie/> and her desire to empathize with the Greasers by writing from their point of view.Template:Efn She wrote the novel when she was 16 and it was published in 1967.<ref name=penguin/> Since then, the book has sold more than 14 million copies.<ref name=smith/> In 2017, Viking Press stated the book sells over 500,000 copies a year.<ref name=italie/>

Hinton's publisher suggested she use her initials instead of her feminine given names so that the first<ref name=nypress/> male book reviewers would not dismiss the novel because its author was female.<ref name=faq/>Template:Efn After the success of The Outsiders, Hinton chose to continue writing and publishing using her initials because she did not want to lose what she had made famousTemplate:Efn and to allow her to keep her private and public lives separate.Template:Efn

1970s-1980s: Young adult novels

In 1971, Hinton released her second book, That Was Then, This Is Now, a coming-of-age story following two close friends, Byron and Mark, whose friendship is tested when the two of them are exposed to the world of drug dealing.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Her third book, Rumble Fish, followed in 1975. It is about high-schooler Rusty-James, whose admiration for his older brother leads to jealousy and heartbreak.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref> Her fourth young adult novel, Tex, was published in 1979 and follows reckless teenager Tex and his difficult family life.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite web</ref> Taming the Star Runner, her final young adult novel, was published in 1988 and is the only one of her YA novels that has not been made into a film.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

By 1982, her four novels had sold over 10 million copies.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

1990s-2000s: Children's and adult books

In the 1990s, Hinton began writing children's books. She published the picture book Big David, Little David in 1995.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was followed later that year with The Puppy Sister, a children's novella about a family's pet dog turning into a human.<ref name=":4">Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2004, Hinton released her first adult novel, Hawkes Harbor. Unlike her previous books, Hawkes Harbor contains strong language and sexual situations.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Her second adult novel, Some of Tim's Stories, was published in 2007.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

These days, Hinton continues to write and has tried new styles of writing.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She has recently begun screenwriting.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

In interviews, Hinton has said that she is a private person and an introvert who no longer does public appearances.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She enjoys reading (Jane Austen, Mary Renault, and F. Scott Fitzgerald),<ref name=faq/> taking classes at the local university, and horseback riding (she has shown in dressage and jumping).<ref name=":6" /> Hinton also revealed to Vulture that she enjoys writing fan fiction.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1970, Hinton married David E. Inhofe, a software engineer she met in her freshman biology class at college.<ref name=":5" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He is a cousin of former Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Following the success of The Outsiders, Hinton developed writer's block and grew depressed, and Inhofe encouraged her to keep writing by making her write two pages a day, which led to the eventual completion of That Was Then, This Is Now. Their only child, Nicholas David, was born in August 1983 in Tulsa, where Hinton and her husband reside now.<ref name=":6">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":1" />

Adaptations

The film adaptations The Outsiders (March 1983) and Rumble Fish (October 1983) were both directed by Francis Ford Coppola; Hinton cowrote the script for Rumble Fish with Coppola. Also adapted to film were Tex (July 1982), directed by Tim Hunter, and That Was Then... This Is Now (November 1985), directed by Christopher Cain. Hinton herself acted as a location scout, and she had cameo roles in three of the four films. She plays a nurse in Dallas's hospital room in The Outsiders. In Tex, she is the typing teacher. She also appears as a sex worker propositioning Rusty James in Rumble Fish. In 2009, Hinton portrayed the school principal in The Legend of Billy Fail.<ref>Template:IMDb title.</ref>

Awards and honors

In 1992, she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa by the University of Tulsa,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and in 1998 she was inducted into the Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame at the Oklahoma Center for Poets and Writers of Oklahoma State University–Tulsa.<ref>"HINTON, SUSAN ELOISE (1949– )" Oklahoma Historical Society.</ref>

Year	Organization	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
1967	New York Herald Tribune	Best Teenage Books List	The Outsiders	Template:Won	<ref name=":7">Template:Cite web</ref>
	Chicago Tribune Book World	Spring Book Festival Honor Book		Template:Won
1971			That Was Then, This Is Now	Template:Won	<ref name=":8">Template:Cite web</ref>
	American Library Association	Best Book for Young Adults		Template:Won
1975			The Outsiders	Template:Won	<ref name=":7" />
			Rumble Fish	Template:Won	<ref name=":2" />
	Media and Methods	Maxi Award	The Outsiders	Template:Won
	School Library Journal	Best Books of the Year	Rumble Fish	Template:Won
1978	Massachusetts Children's Book Award	Template:N/a	That Was Then, This Is Now	Template:Won	<ref name=":8" />
1979	American Library Association	Best Books for Young Adults	Tex	Template:Won	<ref name=":3" />
			Taming the Star Runner	Template:Won	<ref name=":9">Template:Cite web</ref>
	Massachusetts Children's Book Award	Template:N/a	The Outsiders	Template:Won	<ref name=":7" />
	School Library Journal	Best Books of the Year	Taming the Star Runner	Template:Won	<ref name=":9" />
			Tex	Template:Won	<ref name=":3" />
1980	New York Public Library	Books for the Teen-Age		Template:Won
			Taming the Star Runner	Template:Won	<ref name=":9" />
1981	American Book Awards	Template:N/a		Template:Nominated	<ref name=":9" />
		Template:N/a	Tex	Template:Nominated	<ref name=":3" />
1982	California Young Reader Medal	Template:N/a	Taming the Star Runner	Template:Nominated	<ref name=":9" />
		Template:N/a	Tex	Template:Nominated	<ref name=":3" />
	New Mexico Library Association	Land of the Enchantment Award	Rumble Fish	Template:Won	<ref name=":2" />
	Louisiana Association of School Librarians	Sue Hefly Honor Book	Taming the Star Runner	Template:Won	<ref name=":9" />
1983		Sue Hefly Award		Template:Won
			Tex	Template:Won	<ref name=":3" />
1988	American Library Association	Margaret A. Edwards Award	The Outsiders, That Was Then, This Is Now, Rumble Fish, Tex	Template:Won	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1995	Parent's Choice	Silver Honor Book	The Puppy Sister	Template:Won	<ref name=":4" />

Works

Young adult novels

The five YA novels, her first books published, are Hinton's works most widely held in WorldCat libraries.<ref name=worldcat/> All are set in Oklahoma, and take place within a shared universe.

• The Outsiders (1967)
• That Was Then, This Is Now (1971)
• Rumble Fish (1975)
• Tex (1979)
• Taming the Star Runner (1988)

Children's books

• Big David, Little David, illustrated by Alan Daniel (1995), picture book
• The Puppy Sister, illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers (1995), chapter book

Adult fiction

• Hawkes Harbor (2004), novel
• Some of Tim's Stories (2007), short stories

Autobiography

• Great Women Writers, Rita Dove, S.E. Hinton, and Maya Angelou (Princeton NJ: Hacienda Productions, 1999), DVD video — autobiographical accounts by the three authors<ref name=worldcat/>

Further reading

• "Some of Hinton's Stories", interview for Vanity Fair (May 14, 2007)
• "Staying Golden" article in the New York Press (September 28, 2004)

External links

• Template:Official website
• Template:IMDb name
• Template:ISFDB name
• "Hinton, Susan Eloise" in the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
• S. E. Hinton at Library of Congress Authorities — with 17 catalog records