Susan Eloise Hinton was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on July 22, 1948. Hinton grew up in a rather typical city, a city that serves as the inspiration for the setting in each of her novels. She began writing The Outsiders, her first published novel, when she was only a junior in high school.

Many readers do not understand why Hinton decided to write from a male perspective. Hinton explains it by saying, "I'm just more comfortable with that point of view. When I was young, girls never got to do anything... They got their status from what kind of car their boyfriends drove. Other than that they were... well, passive".

Hinton never belonged to any of the groups, and even though she was free from labels, this freedom came with a price. Hinton was a real outsider, withdrawing into herself even more after her father's death which occurred while she was writing The Outsiders. This same, introverted individualism, can still be found within Hinton's adult personality. Hinton's desire to be semi anonymous resulted in her decision to use her initials rather than her full name. Hinton also attributes this decision to her wish to avoid critics who believed a woman did not have the ability to write from a male's point of view.

Once published in 1967, The Outsiders gave her a lot of publicity and fame, and also a lot of pressure. S.

E. Hinton was becoming known as "The Voice of the Youth" among other titles. This kind of pressure and publicity resulted in a three year long writer's block. Her husband,who had gotten sick of her being depressed all the time, eventually broke this block. He made her write two pages a day if she wanted to go anywhere. This eventually led to That 'Was Then, This Is Now', which is known to be a much more well thought out book than The Outsiders. 'That Was Then, This is Now' was published in 1971.

In 1975, S.

E. Hinton published Rumble Fish as a novel (she had published a short story version in a magazine before). It received a great deal of contrasting opinions, with one reviewer claiming it to be her best book and the next claiming it to be her last.

The term "New Realism" began to be applied to Hinton's novels; however, Hinton's writing captures the both the realism and idealism of teenage life. Her books address real issues, such as survival, belonging, abuse, neglect, poverty, addiction, and the need for love.'Tex' was published in 1979, four years after Rumble Fish. It received great reviews and people raved about how the writing style had matured since previous publications.

In March of 1983, the movie 'The Outsiders' was released. Two months later the movie 'Rumble Fish' was released. In 1985 the movie version of 'That Was Then, This Is Now' was released. 'Taming The Star Runner' was released in October of that year. It was the first book that S.

E. Hinton had published that wasn't in first person.

With a seven-year wait, S.

E. Hinton released another book in 1995. This time she did something that no one expected. 'Big David, Little David' was written for children around the kindergarten age. The children's fiction trend continues with her latest release- 'The Puppy Sister', which is a fantasy book written for Elementary school level children.