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S. E. Hinton

American writer (born 1948) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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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.[a] Hinton is credited with introducing the YA genre.[4][5] She graduated from the University of Tulsa.[6]

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In 1988, she received the inaugural Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association for her cumulative contribution in writing for teens.[7][b]

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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.[8][9] 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."[9]

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.[9] Grady developed a brain tumor when Hinton was 15 and died when she was in her junior year of high school.[9][10]

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Career

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1960s: The Outsiders

While still in her teens, Hinton became a household name[a] as the author of The Outsiders, her first and most popular novel, set in Oklahoma in the 1960s. She began writing it in 1965.[11] The book was inspired by two rival gangs at her school, Will Rogers High School,[12] the Greasers and the Socs,[3] and her desire to empathize with the Greasers by writing from their point of view.[c] She wrote the novel when she was 16 and it was published in 1967.[14] Since then, the book has sold more than 14 million copies.[12] In 2017, Viking Press stated the book sells over 500,000 copies a year.[3]

Hinton's publisher suggested she use her initials instead of her feminine given names so that the first[15] male book reviewers would not dismiss the novel because its author was female.[11][d] 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[e] and to allow her to keep her private and public lives separate.[f]

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.[16] 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.[17] Her fourth young adult novel, Tex, was published in 1979 and follows reckless teenager Tex and his difficult family life.[18] 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.[19]

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.[20] It was followed later that year with The Puppy Sister, a children's novella about a family's pet dog turning into a human.[21]

In 2004, Hinton released her first adult novel, Hawkes Harbor. Unlike her previous books, Hawkes Harbor contains strong language and sexual situations.[22] Her second adult novel, Some of Tim's Stories, was published in 2007.[23]

These days, Hinton continues to write and has tried new styles of writing.[24] She has recently began screenwriting.[25]

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Personal life

In interviews, Hinton has said that she is a private person and an introvert who no longer does public appearances.[26] She enjoys reading (Jane Austen, Mary Renault, and F. Scott Fitzgerald),[11] taking classes at the local university, and horseback riding (she has shown in dressage and jumping).[27] Hinton also revealed to Vulture that she enjoys writing fan fiction.[28]

In 1970, Hinton married David E. Inhofe, a software engineer she met in her freshman biology class at college.[25][29] He is a cousin of former Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe.[30] 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.[27][10]

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.[31]

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Awards and honors

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In 1992, she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa by the University of Tulsa,[32] 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.[33]

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Works

Young adult novels

The five YA novels, her first books published, are Hinton's works most widely held in WorldCat libraries.[38] All are set in Oklahoma, and take place within a shared universe.

Children's books

Adult fiction

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[38]
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Notes

  1. "Once a teen sensation who wrote her most famous book while still in high school, Hinton is now 59." –Italie[3]
  2. Before 1988 the ALA awards did not distinguish "children's" literature—the Newbery book award and Wilder career award—from that for "young adults". Hinton won the first biennial "Young Adult Services Division/School Library Journal Author Achievement Award", according to plan, but there were only two as it was renamed and made annual after 1990.
    On the last point compare the 1988, 1990, and 1991 Edwards Award citations.
  3. "Someone should tell their side of the story, and maybe people would understand then and wouldn't be so quick to judge."[13]
  4. "Viking signed her ... with a suggestion that she call herself S.E. in print, so male critics wouldn't be turned off by a woman writer." –Italie[3]
  5. "I made the name famous. I'm not gonna lose it."[15]
  6. "I like having a private name and a public name. It helps keep things straight."[15]
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References

Further reading

External links

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