Who Wrote The Outsiders, When, and Where Does It Take Place?
A teenager in Tulsa, a Viking contract and a pen name made of two initials
Quick facts
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Author | S. E. Hinton (Susan Eloise Hinton) |
| Started writing | At 15 |
| Published | April 24, 1967, by Viking Press |
| Hinton at publication | A first-year student at the University of Tulsa |
| Setting | Tulsa, Oklahoma, mid-1960s |
| Length | About 180 to 200 pages, around 48,000 words |
| Copies sold | More than 15 million |
S. E. Hinton, born Susan Eloise Hinton in Tulsa, Oklahoma, wrote The Outsiders. She began it at 15, wrote most of it at 16 as a high school junior, and Viking Press published it on April 24, 1967.
The story takes place in her hometown of Tulsa in the mid-1960s, with a stretch in the countryside at Windrixville.
Why did S. E. Hinton write The Outsiders?
Hinton was a teenager at Will Rogers High School in Tulsa. She was tired of books about teenagers that had nothing to do with real teenage life: proms, crushes and no class divide, no fights, no grief. Around her, the town was split between poorer greasers and the wealthy Socs, and a friend of hers had been beaten up on the way home. She decided to write the kind of book she wanted to read.
A friend's mother read the manuscript and passed it to a literary agent, who sold it to Viking. Hinton later said she spent about a year and a half on it, and that the hardest part was knowing when to stop.
↑ Back to the topWhy did Hinton publish under S. E. instead of Susan?
Her editor suggested it. A book narrated by a fourteen-year-old boy about gang fights, written by a girl, might have been dismissed, especially by the boys it was meant for. With the initials, readers and reviewers assumed the author was male. The name stuck, and she has been S. E. Hinton ever since.
↑ Back to the topWhen was The Outsiders written and published?
Hinton started the novel at 15, wrote most of it the following year at 16 as a junior, and finished it while still at school. Viking Press published it on April 24, 1967, during her first year at the University of Tulsa. It is often called the book that started young adult fiction as we know it, and it has never gone out of print.
↑ Back to the topWhere does The Outsiders take place?
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the mid-1960s, roughly the time Hinton was writing. The town is split in two: the greasers on the poor East Side and the Socs on the wealthy West Side. The key places are the Curtis house, the drive-in movie theater, the park with the fountain and the vacant lot where the rumble is fought.
For part of the book, Ponyboy and Johnny hide out in an abandoned building on Jay Mountain, near the small town of Windrixville, outside the city. The 1983 film was shot on location in Tulsa, and some of the houses used are still visited by fans today.
↑ Back to the topHow long is The Outsiders?
It is a short novel of twelve chapters, around 48,000 words, which usually comes to about 180 to 200 pages depending on the edition. Most readers finish it in four to five hours, and it is a common choice for middle school and early high school classes.
↑ Back to the topMore about The Outsiders
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