S. E. Hinton

S. E. Hinton
Born Susan Eloise Hinton
(1948-07-22) July 22, 1948[1]
Tulsa, Oklahoma, US
Occupation Writer
Nationality American
Period 1967–present
Genre Young-adult novels, children's books, screenplays[2][3]
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 set in Oklahoma, especially The Outsiders, which she wrote during high school.[lower-alpha 1] In 1988 she received the inaugural Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association for her cumulative contribution in writing for teens.[5][lower-alpha 2]

Career

While still in her teens, Hinton became a household name[lower-alpha 1] as the author of The Outsiders, her first and most popular novel, set in Oklahoma in the 1960s. She began writing it in 1965.[6] The book was inspired by two rival gangs at her school, Will Rogers High School,[7] the Greasers and the Socs,[4] and her desire to show sympathy toward the Greasers by writing from their point of view.[lower-alpha 3] It was published by Viking Press in 1967, during her freshman year at the University of Tulsa.[9] Since then, the book has sold more than 14 million copies[7] and still sells more than 500,000 a year.[4]

Hinton's publisher suggested she use her initials instead of her feminine given names so that the very first[10] male book reviewers would not dismiss the novel because its author was female.[6][lower-alpha 4] 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,[lower-alpha 5] and to allow her to keep her private and public lives separate.[lower-alpha 6]

Personal life

Hinton states that she is a private person. She has revealed, however, that she enjoys reading (Jane Austen, Mary Renault, and F. Scott Fitzgerald[6]), writing, taking classes at the local university, and horseback riding.

She currently resides with her husband David Inhofe, a software engineer,[7] whom she married in the summer of 1970[11] after meeting him in her freshman biology class at college.[7] 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.[12][13]

Adaptations

Film adaptations of The Outsiders (March 1983) and Rumble Fish (October 1983) were both directed by Francis Ford Coppola; Hinton co-wrote the script for Rumble Fish with Coppola. Also adapted to film were Tex (1982), directed by Tim Hunter, and That Was Then... This Is Now (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 prostitute propositioning Rusty James in Rumble Fish. In 2009, Hinton portrayed the school principal in The Legend of Billy Fail.[14]

Awards and honors

Hinton received the inaugural, 1988 Margaret A. Edwards Award[lower-alpha 2] 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[lower-alpha 2] 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."[5]

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.[15]

Works

Young adult novels

The five YA novels, her first books published, are Hinton's works most widely held in WorldCat libraries.[16] All are set in Oklahoma.

Children's books

Adult fiction

Autobiography

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Once a teen sensation who wrote her most famous book while still in high school, Hinton is now 59." –Italie[4]
  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."[8]
  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[4]
  5. "I made the name famous. I'm not gonna lose it."[10]
  6. "I like having a private name and a public name. It helps keep things straight."[10]

References

  1. "S E Hinton". The New York Times. 2010. Retrieved 2011-09-09.
  2. S.E. Hinton at the Internet Movie Database.
  3. Pulver, Andrew (October 29, 2004). "When you grow up, your heart dies: SE Hinton's The Outsiders (1983)". The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  4. 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.
  5. 1 2 "1988 Margaret A. Edwards Award Winner". Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). American Library Association (ALA).
      "Edwards Award". YALSA. ALA. Retrieved 2013-09-26.
  6. 1 2 3 "Frequently Asked Questions (note: this page is not available on sehinton.com and was captured by Wayback Machine on 13 October 2007 - url=http://web.archive.org/web/20071013090947/http://sehinton.com/misc/faq.html)". sehinton.com. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Smith, Dinitia (September 7, 2005). "An Interview With S. E. Hinton: An Outsider, Out of the Shadow". The New York Times.
  8. Peck, Dale (September 23, 2007). "The Outsiders: 40 Years Later". The New York Times.
  9. "About S. E. Hinton". Penguin Group USA.
  10. 1 2 3 "Staying Golden". Unsigned review of Hawkes Harbor. New York Press. September 28, 2004. Retrieved 2010-03-25.
  11. "S.E. Hinton". tcmuk.tv.
  12. Wilson, Antoine (2003). S. E. Hinton. New York: Rosen Central. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-8239-3778-3.
  13. Nick Inhofe at the Internet Movie Database.
  14. Legend of Billy Fail at the Internet Movie Database.
  15. "Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame". Oklahoma Center for Poets and Writers. OSU–Tulsa.
  16. 1 2 "Hinton, S. E.". WorldCat. Retrieved 2013-03-10.

External links

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