When I read “The Outsiders” as a teenager I somehow knew that author S. E. Hinton was a woman, in fact I knew her first name as “Sue”. Perhaps it was on the jacket of that or one of her other books (“Rumble Fish” or “Tex”) or maybe it was in a study guide, though I didn’t read her books for school. I didn’t know that she was somewhat of a mystery as she kept a very private life, nor did I know that she published “The Outsiders” when she was 17 (!!). Now in her 50s and still residing in Tulsa, Hinton consented to speak with the NY Times, prompted by the release of a recut version of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Outsiders” on DVD. She reveals an unpleasant childhood and, not a surprise, a high school where Greasers (from the working class) clashed with the Socs (Tulsa’s oil rich). Her latest novels are for adults and have a touch of the paranormal. Happily married, with a son in college, Hinton says “my goal from being a child was to have a happy home life.”