Scott Joplin and the Age of Ragtime

The late Ray Argyle was a journalist and media consultant. His articles appeared in such magazines as Reader's Digest, France Today, and World War II History. He lived in Kingston, Ontario.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments      Prelude      Part I—Breaking All the Rules: The 1890s      1. A Medley for the Fair: A Time to Start Raggin’ It      2. My Kind of Town: Hot Nights in the City      3. The Making of the Legend: A Boy and a Banjo      4. Marching to a Ragtime Tune      Part II—The Music Makers Play Main Street: The 1900s      5. Writing in Ragtime      6. Tin Pan Alley and All That Jazz: Footloose in “Black Bohemia”      7. They All Played Ragtime: Scott Joplin and Irving Berlin—A Case of Plagiarism?      8. The Girls of Ragtime and the Cult of Celebrity: Murder, Passion and Honor      Part III—The Dream That Wouldn’t Die: The 1910s      9. Dancing in Ragtime      10. The Censors and the Erotic Life      11. Reporting in Ragtime      12. Dreaming of Treemonisha      Part IV—After the Rag: The Finale      13. Little Mary and the Little Tramp: Ragtime Partners of the Silent Screen      14. The Rites of Spring: The Martyred Saint of the Ragtime Era      15. Ragtime in Revival      16. Echoes of the Music: We’re All Still Playing Ragtime      The Life and Times of Scott Joplin      Scott Joplin’s Compositions      Sources of Quotations      Appendix: Ragtime in the Newspapers      Bibliography      Index

“Ray Argyle is an author who writes exceptionally fascinating stories on social and cultural change.”—Toronto Globe and Mail; “not simply a musical history...ragtime aficionados and the new-to-ragtime together will be delighted by the information...and creative take Argyle has on this music Joplin and his contemporaries gave us”—ARSC Journal; “an excellent read, for musicians, historians and the curious”—www.mfiles.co.uk.