Why does S. E. Hinton use her initials instead of her full name?
S. E. Hinton published The Outsiders in 1967. On the advice of her publisher, she used her initials instead of her full name, Susan Eloise, to forestall the inevitable criticism that female writers cannot write convincingly from the perspective of males. After it became known that S. E. Hinton was...
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female, she continued to use S. E. Hinton as her professional name to draw a line between her public and private lives. Hinton has said in interviews and on her website that she values her privacy, and by publishing as "S. E." she can maintain separate identities as a public writer and private citizen.
Hinton's publisher in 1967 perhaps continued the nineteenth-century tradition of female writers masking their gender, apparently as a way to broaden their readership. J. K. Rowling's publisher is said to have given her the same advice upon publishing the Harry Potter novels. Mary Ann Evans published under the name George Eliot. Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin wrote under the name George Sand. Emily Brontë published as Ellis Bell, Charlotte Brontë as Currer Bell, and Anne Brontë as Acton Bell.
Why did S. E. Hinton use a pseudonym?
A pseudonym is a false name used for a particular activity, such as writing books. The pseudonym appears on the spine of the book and is used for all purposes connected with writing and publishing, while the author continues to use their real name in everyday life. Mark Twain, George Eliot, and George Orwell are all examples of pseudonyms.
S. E. Hinton is not a true pseudonym, since the author in question, Susan Eloise Hinton, simply uses an abbreviated version of her real name. When she wrote The Outsiders, her first novel, the publishers suggested that male readers might not want to read a book about boys written by a girl (Hinton was still in high school at the time) and asked her to use the gender-neutral S. E. Hinton. The same request was made to J. K. Rowling thirty years later when she began publishing the Harry Potter books.
Hinton has stated that, although the name that appears on her books is merely an abbreviation of her real name and although it was suggested by her publisher, it has effectively functioned as a pseudonym, since few people in her day-to-day life connect her name, Susan Hinton, with the book. She has also said that she likes to keep her private life separate from her writing, so the arrangement has worked well.