S.E. Hinton as she looked in 1968

S.E. Hinton, author of The Outsiders, in 1968. Susan Eloise Hinton was born in 1948, so she turned 20 the year this photo was taken. She was only 17 years old when she sold her first book, The Outsiders, to a publisher. A teen-angst tale of "Greasers" and "Socs," it has remained a staple of junior high and high school literature classes ever since.