Susan Eloise Hinton (born July 22, 1948) is a well-known American author best known for her young-adult (YA) novels set in Oklahoma, including The Outsiders (1967), which she wrote while still in high school. Her books have been widely read and enjoyed by students and parents alike. She was born in New York City to Susan Love Hinton, a writer and poet, and William Stanley Hinton, who worked as an advertising executive. She has two siblings: a sister, Sylvia, and a brother, Bill. Hinton grew up in Manhattan and showed an early interest in writing. When she was only six years old, she wrote and published a poem entitled "The Little Engine That Could". It was later included in a collection of poems called _Earth Songs_, which was written by her mother and also featured poems by John Muir and Robert Frost. Hinton's father died when she was nine years old, and her family moved to Woodstock, Connecticut, so that she could get closer to her uncle, the painter Love Hinton. She attended Woodstock High School where she became involved in student government and journalism. After graduating from high school, she went to Boston University where she studied English literature for one year before dropping out to focus on her writing career.