S.E Hinton is an American author growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was born on July 22, 1950, there was little to do for a child growing up in Tulsa, so Hinton turned to reading and writing at a very early age. Although writing wasn’t Hinton’s first dream she abandoned the dream of becoming a cattle rancher and grew towards a writing career. Hinton slowing developed her love for literature as a teenager in Tulsa, but often found her options limited and boring. While she was in junior high school, Hinton’s father was diagnosed with cancer, which back then there weren’t many treatments yet so this disease was usually fatal. To handle her father’s condition, Hinton turned to writing. During this time, she completed her first book The Outsiders at an age of only 17. The Outsiders was published in 1967, when the author was just seventeen. Susan Eloise shortened her name to S.E Hinton so that boys would not know the author was female. It was published to critical acclaim, won several awards, and became a cult classic among teen readers. The success of The Outsiders enabled Hinton to go to the University of Tulsa, where she earned a B.S. in Education in 1970. While in school she met her future husband, David Inhofe, who encouraged her to write her second novel. After writing her first two books Hinton's writing career took off.
