S. E. Hinton

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Lore & Background

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. 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." 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. Grady developed a brain tumor when Hinton was 15 and died when she was in her junior year of high school. While still in her teens, Hinton wrote 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 empathize with the Greasers by writing from their point of view. She wrote the novel when she was 16 and it was published in 1967. Since then, the book has sold more than 14 million copies. In 2017, Viking Press stated the book sells over 500,000 copies a year. Hinton's publisher suggested she use her initials instead of her feminine given names so that the 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. In 1970, Hinton married David E. Inhofe, a software engineer she met in her freshman biology class at college. He is a cousin of former Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe. 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.

Reader's Guide

S. E. Hinton's significance lies in her role as the writer credited with introducing the young-adult genre, beginning with The Outsiders, a novel she wrote at age 16. The book's enduring popularity—over 14 million copies sold and more than 500,000 copies per year as of 2017—demonstrates its lasting impact on adolescent literature. Her five YA novels, all set in Oklahoma and within a shared universe, have collectively sold over 10 million copies by 1982. Four of these novels were adapted into films, with Hinton contributing as a co-writer on Rumble Fish and appearing in cameo roles in three of the four adaptations. Her work has been recognized with the inaugural Margaret Edwards Award in 1988, and she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa by the University of Tulsa in 1992 and the Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame in 1998. Hinton's decision to publish under initials to avoid gender-based dismissal by male reviewers, and her subsequent continuation of that practice for privacy, reflects the challenges faced by female authors in the mid-20th century. Her later work includes children's books and adult fiction, showing a range beyond YA.

Did You Know?

• Hinton wrote The Outsiders when she was 16, and it was published in 1967.
• Her publisher suggested she use initials so male reviewers wouldn't dismiss the novel because she was female.
• Her mother threw one of Hinton's early manuscripts in a trash burner, though she allowed her to rescue it.
• Hinton's husband, David E. Inhofe, is a cousin of former Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe.
• Hinton has cameo roles in three of the four film adaptations of her novels: as a nurse in The Outsiders, a typing teacher in Tex, and a sex worker in Rumble Fish.

The Teen Who Invented a Genre

Few authors can claim to have essentially created the category in which they would spend their career, yet that is the mark S. E. Hinton left on American literature. While still a teenager at Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, she began drafting a story in 1965 that would become The Outsiders, published in 1967 when she was just sixteen. The novel drew directly from the two rival groups she observed at her school—the Greasers and the Socs—and she set out to give voice to the Greasers by telling their story from inside their own perspective. Her publisher, sensing that the era's male reviewers might dismiss a young woman's work, urged her to publish under initials rather than her full given name. She agreed, and the strategy worked: the book went on to sell more than fourteen million copies, and by 2017 Viking Press reported it was still moving over half a million copies annually. Hinton has been widely credited with introducing the young-adult genre to the literary world, and she has kept the initials ever since, preferring to keep her private self apart from the public figure who made the name famous.

A Tulsa Childhood Forged in Adversity

Susan Eloise Hinton entered the world on July 22, 1948, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, into a household marked by hardship. Her father, Grady, worked as a door-to-door salesman and was a man she later described as extremely cold. Her mother, Lillian, labored in a factory and was both physically and emotionally abusive; at one point she hurled one of young Susan's early manuscripts into a trash burner, though she permitted the girl to pull it back out. The family also attended what Hinton recalled as a fundamentalist, hellfire-and-brimstone congregation, an experience that drove her away from organized religion for the rest of her life. The family's darkest blow came when Grady was diagnosed with a brain tumor while Susan was fifteen. He died during her junior year of high school, leaving her to navigate the loss while still finding the time to write. Despite—or perhaps because of—these early wounds, Hinton channeled her observations of working-class Tulsa life into the stories that would define a generation of young readers.

Building a Shared Oklahoma Universe

Beyond the phenomenon of The Outsiders, Hinton constructed a tightly interconnected body of young-adult fiction, all five novels set in Oklahoma and unfolding within a shared world. That Was Then, This Is Now (1971) follows two close friends, Byron and Mark, whose bond is shattered when they stumble into the world of drug dealing. Rumble Fish (1975) centers on Rusty-James, a high-schooler whose worship of his older brother curdles into jealousy and heartbreak. Tex (1979) tracks a reckless teenager navigating a troubled family, and Taming the Star Runner (1988) rounds out the series as the only one never adapted to the screen. By 1982 the four novels had collectively surpassed ten million copies in print. In the 1990s Hinton pivoted toward younger readers, publishing the picture book Big David, Little David and the novella The Puppy Sister, both in 1995. Then in 2004 she crossed into adult fiction with Hawkes Harbor, a novel that embraced strong language and sexual content her earlier work had avoided, followed by the short-story collection Some of Tim's Stories in 2007. She has also experimented with screenwriting, continuing to push her craft well past the boundaries of her original genre.

The Private Life Behind the Initials

Despite a career that made her a household name, Hinton has always guarded her personal world fiercely. She describes herself as an introvert who has stepped away from public appearances entirely. In Tulsa, where she and her husband reside, she spends her days reading Jane Austen, Mary Renault, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, taking classes at the local university, and riding horses in both dressage and jumping. She has even admitted to the pleasure of writing fan fiction. Her marriage to David E. Inhofe, a software engineer she met in a freshman biology class at the University of Tulsa, proved to be a lifeline during a period of writer's block and depression that followed The Outsiders. He encouraged her to commit to just two pages a day, a discipline that eventually produced That Was Then, This Is Now. Their son Nicholas David was born in Tulsa in August 1983. On the professional side, Hinton served as location scout and landed small cameo roles in three of the four film adaptations of her novels, and in 1988 she became the inaugural recipient of the American Library Association's Margaret Edwards Award, honoring her cumulative contribution to writing for teenagers.