S.E. Hinton was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At the age of sixteen she wrote her
             First novel, The Outsiders. I t was this book that allowed Hinton to attend the University
             Of Tulsa. While attending the University of Tulsa, Hinton fell in love and married David
             Inhofe just before graduating from the University of Tulsa in 1970.
             Hinton started her writing career at the early age of sixteen. She wrote part of The
             Outsiders for a school project and her teacher was so impressed that she pushed Hinton to
             write more, which led to her final copy of The Outsiders. Her books received many
             rewards and honors. That Was Then, This Is Now was chosen as a notable book by the
             American Library Association. The Outsiders was chosen by the New York Herald
             Tribune as one of the best teen-age books for 1967, and received the Media & Methods
             Maxi Award in 1975. Both books were selected as Honor Books in the Chicago Tribune
             Book World's Children's Spring Book Festival.
             Hinton enjoyed reading books as an adolescent, but was dismayed to find only a
             small segment of a teen-ager's life depicted in literature. To remedy this oversight, the
             young author began to write about teens in a setting she felt would be familiar to her
             contemporaries. Ms Hinton's The Outsiders was loosely based on a gang-oriented life-
             style of her fellow high school classmates. In reviewing the book, a critic for the New
             York Times commented: "Can sincerity overcome cliches? In this book by a now
             Seventeen-year-old author, it almost does the trick. By almost any standard, Miss
             Hinton's performance is impressive...."(CB 104). A Saturday Review critic expressed a similar
             view, noting that The Outsider is "written with distinctive style by a teen-ager who is
             sensitive, honest and observant...."(CB 104).
             The Outsiders, an enthralling tale by S.E. Hinton, is an excellent story ...