By the time she was 17 years
old, Susan Eloise Hinton was a published author. While still in high school
in her hometown--Tulsa, Oklahoma--Hinton put in words what she saw and
felt growing up and called it The Outsiders, a now classic story
of two sets of high school rivals, the Greasers and the Socs (for society
kids). Because her hero was a Greaser and outsider, and her tale was one
of gritty realism, Hinton launched a revolution in young adult literature.
Since her narrator was a boy,
Hinton's publishers suggested that she publish under the name of S. E.
Hinton; they feared their readers wouldn't respect a "macho" story written
by a woman. Hinton says today, "I don't mind having two identities;
in fact, I like keeping the writer part separate in some ways. And since
my alter ego is clearly a 15-year-old boy, having an authorial self that
doesn't suggest a gender is just fine with me."
Today, more than twenty-five
years after its first publication, The Outsiders ranks as a classic,
still widely read and one of the most important and taboo-breaking books
in the field. Finally, someone was writing about the real concerns and
emotions of a teenager. The Outsiders marked the beginning of a
new kind of realism in books written for the young adult market, and Hinton's
next four books followed suit.
She wrote her second book while
she was in college at the University of Tulsa, studying to be a teacher.
But "I don't have the nerve or physical stamina to teach," she says. "I
did my student teaching, but I couldn't leave the kids and their problems
behind me; I'd go home and worry about them. I think people who are good
teachers do one of the most important jobs there is; I can't praise them
highly enough."
David Inhofe, who is now her
husband, was her boyfriend then, and was instrumental in helping her get
her second book written. Hinton was suffering from writer's block.
Inhofe refused to go out with her at night unless she wrote two pages during
the day, and slowly but steadily over four months, she compiled the manuscript
that became That Was Then, This is Now, a story of drugs, delinquency,
and a tough kid making a tough decision. She and David were married in
1970; the second book was published in 1971.
Her third book, Rumble Fish,
was published in 1975. Hinton was inspired to write it by a magazine photo
she had saved since 1967, of a boy on a motorcycle. Tex followed, and drew
the attention of Walt Disney Studios. In 1982, Disney's movie version,
starring Matt Dillon, was released. Dillon later starred in movies of The
Outsiders
and
Rumble Fish, and he and Hinton have become friends
over the years. In 1985, Paramount Pictures released That Was Then,
This is Now and Fox Television adapted The Outsiders for a television
series.
Taming the Star Runner,
Hinton's fifth book, was a departure for her. "For the first time, I told
the story in the third person. My son, Nick, was then four, and I was so
involved with him that I didn't have the emotional space to become a completely
other person."
After Taming the Star Runner,
Hinton took a seven-year break. She was busy with Nick, and she says, "I
couldn't think of a single thing to say. I didn't have a writer's block--I
was writing plenty: screenplays for my novels, television scripts, advertisements.
I simply didn't have a story I wanted to tell."
When she found a story, it was
directly from her life. Big David, Little David is a hilarious picture
book about a joke she and her husband played on Nick when he was entering
kindergarten. On his first day at school, little Nick meets a boy who,
like Nick's father, has dark hair, glasses, and is named David. "He's not
you, is he?" Nick asks his father.
"Oh, yes, that's me," Big David
says. A rollicking tale of confused identity follows.
No more outsiders, no
more tough boys, but Big David, Little David shares with all of
Hinton's work a deeply autobiographical thread.
"The Puppy Sister is actually
the most autobiographical of all of my books," she says. "Nick is an only
child and was not an animal person. He was a little bit afraid of dogs,
but I was determined to get him a puppy so he could connect and share attention
in the family. We got our puppy when Nick was eight, and there was so much
sibling rivalry between the two that he once accused me of loving the dog
more than I loved him. 'Honey,' I told him, `it's not true. I love you
more: you're housebroken.' "
Hinton knew the story of puppy-boy
rivalry was a good one, but she needed a hook. Nick provided it. One day
the three of them came home from a walk and Nick said to his mother, "I
wonder when she will turn into a person." And The Puppy Sister was
born.
When Hinton's not writing,
she rides her horse, takes courses at the university, and is involved in
Nick's school. "I'm not any one thing, and that's a reason I don't
mind having a separate identity for my writing. I'm an author, but I'm
also a mother, a friend, a horseback rider, a decent cook. Being involved
domestically keeps me in touch with reality."
S. E. Hinton is the recipient
of the American Library Association's and School Library Journal's first
annual Margaret A. Edwards Award, which honors authors whose "book or books,
over a period of time, have been accepted by young people as an authentic
voice that continues to illuminate their experiences and emotions, giving
insight into their lives."