S. E. Hinton

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S. E. Hinton
BornSusan Eloise Hinton
(1948-07-22) July 22, 1948 (age 76)
Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.
OccupationWriter
NationalityAmerican
Period1967–present
Genre Young-adult novels, children's books, screenplays [1] [2]
Notable awards Margaret Edwards Award
1988
Website
www.sehinton.com

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]

Contents

In 1988, she received the inaugural Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association for her cumulative contribution in writing for teens. [6] [b]

Career

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. [7] The book was inspired by two rival gangs at her school, Will Rogers High School, [8] 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. [10] Since then, the book has sold more than 14 million copies. [8] 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 [11] male book reviewers would not dismiss the novel because its author was female. [7] [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]

Personal life

In interviews, Hinton has said that she is a private person and an introvert who no longer does public appearances. [12] She enjoys reading (Jane Austen, Mary Renault, and F. Scott Fitzgerald), [7] taking classes at the local university, and horseback riding. Hinton also revealed to Vulture that she enjoys writing fan fiction. [13]

She resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with her husband David Inhofe, a software engineer she met in her freshman biology class at college. [8] He is a cousin of former Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe. [14]

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. [15]

Awards and honors

Hinton received the inaugural 1988 Margaret A. Edwards Award [b] from the American YA librarians, citing her first four YA novels, which had been published from 1967 to 1979 and adapted as films from 1982 to 1985. The annual [b] award recognizes one author of books published in the U.S., and specified works "taken to heart by young adults over a period of years, providing an 'authentic voice that continues to illuminate their experiences and emotions, giving insight into their lives'." The librarians noted that in reading Hinton's novels "a young adult may explore the need for independence and simultaneously the need for loyalty and belonging, the need to care for others, and the need to be cared for by them." [6]

In 1992, she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa by the University of Tulsa, [16] 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. [17]

Works

Young adult novels

The five YA novels, her first books published, are Hinton's works most widely held in WorldCat libraries. [18] All are set in Oklahoma, and take place within a shared universe.

Children's books

Adult fiction

Autobiography

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Once a teen sensation who wrote her most famous book while still in high school, Hinton is now 59." –Italie [3]
  2. 1 2 3 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." [9]
  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." [11]
  6. ↑ "I like having a private name and a public name. It helps keep things straight." [11]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Outsiders</i> (novel) 1967 novel by S. E. Hinton

The Outsiders is a coming-of-age novel by S.E. Hinton published in 1967 by Viking Press. The book details the conflict between two rival gangs of White Americans divided by their socioeconomic status: the working-class "Greasers" and the upper-middle-class "Socs". The story is told in first-person perspective by teenage protagonist Ponyboy Curtis, and takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1965, although this is never explicitly stated in the book.

<i>That Was Then, This Is Now</i> 1971 young adult novel by S. E. Hinton

That Was Then, This Is Now is a coming-of age, young adult novel by S. E. Hinton, first published in 1971. Set in the 1960s, it follows the relationship between two brothers, Mark Jennings and Bryon Douglas, who are foster brothers, but find their relationship rapidly changing and deteriorating. The book was later adapted into a 1985 film starring Emilio Estevez and Craig Sheffer.

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<i>The Outsiders</i> (film) 1983 film directed by Francis Ford Coppola

The Outsiders is a 1983 American coming-of-age crime drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The film is an adaptation of the 1967 novel of the same name by S. E. Hinton and was released on March 25, 1983, in the United States. Jo Ellen Misakian, a librarian at Lone Star Elementary School in Fresno, California, and her students were responsible for inspiring Coppola to make the film.

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<i>Tex</i> (film) 1982 film by Tim Hunter

Tex is a 1982 American coming-of-age drama film directed by Tim Hunter in his directorial debut, from a screenplay by Charles S. Haas and Hunter, based on S. E. Hinton's best-selling 1979 novel of the same name. It follows two teenage brothers in rural Oklahoma and their struggle to grow up after their mother's death and their father's departure. The film stars Matt Dillon in the title role, with Jim Metzler, Meg Tilly, Emilio Estevez, in his film debut, Bill McKinney, Frances Lee McCain and Ben Johnson in supporting roles. Metzler was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his performance.

The Margaret A. Edwards Award is an American Library Association (ALA) literary award that annually recognizes an author and "a specific body of his or her work, for significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature". It is named after Margaret A. Edwards (1902–1988), the longtime director of young adult services at Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore.

Susan Eloise Hinton is an American author who is best known for writing young adult fiction. The Outsiders was Hinton's first published book in 1967; Hinton started the book at the age of fifteen. Hinton based the characters, the Greasers and the Socs, off of teenage gangs and alienated youth in her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma during the 1960s. The Outsiders has sold over fourteen million copies since it was published. In 1983, The Outsiders became a movie, and was later released onto DVD. After experiencing a writer's block and going into a state of depression, Hinton met somebody in her freshmen biology class, who inspired her to continue writing.

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<i>The Outsiders</i> (musical) 2023 musical based on novel by S.E. Hinton

The Outsiders is a 2023 musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance from the folk rock band Jamestown Revival alongside Justin Levine and a book by Adam Rapp and Levine. It is based on The Outsiders, first published in 1967 and written by S. E. Hinton, and on its 1983 film adaptation written by Kathleen Rowell and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It is the second stage adaptation of Hinton's novel, following the 1990 play by Christopher Sergel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ponyboy Curtis</span> Fictional protagonist of The Outsiders

Ponyboy Michael "Pony" Curtis is a fictional character and the main protagonist of S. E. Hinton's 1967 novel The Outsiders. On screen, he is played by C. Thomas Howell in Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 film adaptation and by Jay R. Ferguson in the 1990 sequel TV series. Brody Grant originated the role on stage in the 2023 stage musical adaptation.

References

  1. ↑ S.E. Hinton at IMDb.
  2. ↑ Pulver, Andrew (October 29, 2004). "When you grow up, your heart dies: SE Hinton's The Outsiders (1983)". The Guardian . Retrieved March 25, 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Italie, Hillel (October 3, 2007). "40 years later Hinton's 'The Outsiders' still strikes a chord among the readers". San Diego Union-Tribune. Associated Press. Archived from the original on July 2, 2017. Retrieved June 13, 2019.
  4. ↑ Michaud, Jon (October 14, 2014). "S. E. Hinton and the Y.A. Debate". The New Yorker .
  5. ↑ Grady, Constance (January 26, 2017). "The Outsiders reinvented young adult fiction. Harry Potter made it inescapable". Vox .
  6. 1 2 "1988 Margaret A. Edwards Award Winner" Archived October 6, 2013, at the Wayback Machine . Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). American Library Association (ALA).
      "Edwards Award". YALSA. ALA. Retrieved September 26, 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 "Frequently Asked Questions". sehinton.com. Archived from the original on October 13, 2007. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
  8. 1 2 3 Smith, Dinitia (September 7, 2005). "An Interview With S. E. Hinton: An Outsider, Out of the Shadow". The New York Times.
  9. ↑ Peck, Dale (September 23, 2007). "The Outsiders: 40 Years Later". The New York Times .
  10. ↑ "The Outsiders". Penguin Random House. Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  11. 1 2 3 "Staying Golden". Unsigned review of Hawkes Harbor. New York Press. September 28, 2004. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
  12. ↑ Saucier, Heather (April 7, 1997). "INSIDE AN OUTSIDER // Noted Tulsa Author Prefers Family Life To Limelight". Tulsa World .
  13. ↑ Whitford, Emma (March 13, 2015). "Lev Grossman, S.E. Hinton, and Other Authors on the Freedom of Writing Fanfiction". Vulture .
  14. ↑ Smith, Sue. "Tulsans Have Novel Time at Premiere". The Oklahoman. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  15. ↑ Legend of Billy Fail at IMDb .
  16. ↑ "University of Tulsa Phi Beta Kappa".
  17. ↑ "HINTON, SUSAN ELOISE (1949– )" Oklahoma Historical Society.
  18. 1 2 "Hinton, S. E.". WorldCat. Retrieved March 10, 2013.

Further reading

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