S. E. Hinton | |
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Born | Susan Eloise Hinton July 22, 1948 Tulsa, Oklahoma, US |
Occupation | Writer |
Nationality | American |
Period | 1967–present |
Genre | Young-adult novels, children's books, screenplays |
Notable awards |
Margaret Edwards Award 1988 |
Website | |
www |
Susan Eloise Hinton (born July 22, 1948) is an American writer best known for her young-adult novels set in Oklahoma, especially The Outsiders, which she wrote during high school. In 1988 she received the inaugural Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association for her cumulative contribution in writing for teens.
While still in her teens, Hinton became a household name as the author of The Outsiders, her first and most popular novel, set in Oklahoma in the 1960s. She began writing it in 1965. The book was inspired by two rival gangs at her school, Will Rogers High School, the Greasers and the Socs, and her desire to show sympathy toward the Greasers by writing from their point of view. It was published by Viking Press in 1967, during her freshman year at the University of Tulsa. Since then, the book has sold more than 14 million copies and still sells more than 500,000 a year.
Hinton's publisher suggested she use her initials instead of her feminine given names so that the very first male book reviewers would not dismiss the novel because its author was female. 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 famous, and to allow her to keep her private and public lives separate.
Hinton states that she is a private person. She has revealed, however, that she enjoys reading (Jane Austen, Mary Renault, and F. Scott Fitzgerald), writing, taking classes at the local university, and horseback riding.
She currently resides with her husband David Inhofe, a software engineer, whom she married in the summer of 1970 after meeting him in her freshman biology class at college. In August 1983, they became parents to Nicolas David Inhofe, who has worked as a sound effects recordist on the movie Ice Age: The Meltdown.