S. E. Hinton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

S. E. Hinton

Born Susan Eloise Hinton
July 22, 1948 (1948-07-22) (age 59)
Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
Occupation Novelist
Nationality American
Writing period 1967 – present
Genres Fiction, young adult fiction, children's literature
Official website

Susan Eloise Hinton (born July 22, 1948) is an American author of novels for young adults.

Contents

[edit] Biography

S.E. Hinton, who was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, first began writing in her junior year at Will Rogers High School in Tulsa. After her father died of a cancerous brain tumor, she withdrew and found solace in writing. She was inspired to write The Outsiders, her first and most popular novel, because of the two divided groups in her high school, the Greasers and the Socs. During that time she also witnessed the beating of her friend by two other high school students. The Outsiders was published by Viking in 1967, and it became the second-best-selling young-adult novel in publishing history, with more than eight million copies in print.[1] Hinton's publisher suggested she use her initials instead of her first name so that male reviewers would not ignore the novel for having been written by a female; she subsequently chose to continue using her initials so as to better separate her public life from her private life.

Hinton attended the University of Tulsa and earned her B.S. degree in 1970. In 1988 she was the first recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award, presented by the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the ALA;[1] the award recognizes an author whose work depicts the experiences and emotions of teenagers and is widely accepted by young people. In 1997 Hinton received the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oklahoma Center for the Book.[2]

After The Outsiders, her best-known book is Rumble Fish, which was originally published in 1968 as a short story in the University of Tulsa literary journal Nimrod and later expanded into a novel. She also wrote That Was Then, This Is Now (1971), Tex (1979), and Taming The Star Runner (1988). Common themes within her novels are juvenile delinquency, high school subcultures, teenage rebellion, and other issues that remain important to young adults today. All of the books are set in Tulsa and the surrounding area and have characters or places in common (see Continuity within S.E. Hinton Novels).

Film adaptations of The Outsiders (1983) and Rumble Fish (1984), both directed by Francis Ford Coppola, established the careers of many film stars, such as Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Diane Lane, Emilio Estevez,Patrick Swayze, and Mickey Rourke. Also adapted to film were Tex (1982), directed by Tim Hunter, and That Was Then... This Is Now (1985), directed by Christopher Cain. Contrary to the usual Hollywood practice of excluding authors of source material from involvement in the production of adaptations, Hinton participated directly in the filming: in addition to acting as a location scout, she had cameo roles in three of the four films.

[edit] Works

[edit] For young adults

[edit] For children

[edit] For adults

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ "1988 Margaret A. Edwards Award Winner". ala.org (Undated). Retrieved on 2007-03-06.
  2. ^ "Big Bluestem—1997’s Big Winner at Eighth Annual Oklahoma Book Awards". Oklahoma Center for the Book, Oklahoma Department of Libraries (Undated). Retrieved on 2007-03-06.
Persondata
NAME Hinton, S. E.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hinton, Susan Eloise
SHORT DESCRIPTION Young-adult writer
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Tulsa, Oklahoma
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH