It wasn’t until her then-boyfriend (now-husband), upset with her depression that resulted from her blockage, insisted that she wrote two pages a day if she wanted to go anywhere. This kind of pressure and publicity resulted in a three-year long writer’s block. She was quickly becoming known as “The Voice of the Youth” among other titles.

Hinton a lot of publicity and fame, but that also meant that she was under a lot of pressure. Hinton goes by Susie, but when she wrote The Outsiders, her editor, Velma Varner, suggested she use her gender-neutral initials out of concern that her given name would “throw some of the boy readers off.” She continued to use these initials in her career, even in more recent publications. The Outsiders also brought some personal challenges for its author. Ms. The book has even been banned from some schools and libraries because of the novel’s frequent portrayal of gang violence, underage smoking and drinking, strong language and family dysfunction. It was ranked #38 on the American Library Association’s Top 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990 – 1999. At the time of its publication-and still to this day-it is often challenged and debated. “That’s the only way I can deal with it.” That’s not to say that The Outsiderswasn’t without initial controversy upon its release. I got chosen to write it,” she told the New York Times. “The rest of my books I wrote, but ‘ The Outsiders’ was meant to be written. The Outsiders has permeated the culture so deeply it is still somewhat surreal to even Ms.

50th anniversary the outsiders