S.E. Hinton wrote The Outsiders in 1964, when she was sixteen years old and living in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The novel reflects some of the social tensions that Hinton saw in her daily life at that time: the relationships between wealthy (the Socs) and poor (the greasers, as well as between youth and adults. When it was published a few years later the novel was an immediate and unprecedented success; some credit Hinton with "inventing" the contemporary young adult novel. In 1983, The Outsiders was adapted into a film by Francis Ford Coppola and today is considered a classic.
The Outsiders changed the way people write about adolescents, allowing for a more raw and intimate tone....
