S. E. Hinton

Career 1960s: The Outsiders

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. 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. Her fourth young adult novel, Tex, was published in 1979 and follows reckless teenager Tex and his difficult family life. 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.

By 1982, her four novels had sold over 10 million copies.

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

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

Hinton continues to write and has tried new styles of writing, including screenwriting.

Personal life In interviews, Hinton has said that she is a private person and an introvert who no longer does public appearances. She enjoys reading (Jane Austen, Mary Renault, and F. Scott Fitzgerald),

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.

Awards and honors In 1992, she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa by the University of Tulsa, 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. + Year Organization Category Work Result Ref.

New York Herald Tribune Best Teenage Books List

1971

The Outsiders Massachusetts Children's Book Award The Outsiders 1995 Parent's Choice Silver Honor Book The Puppy Sister