Scott Joplin Helps Ragtime Reach a Wider Public

On August 10, 1899, Scott Joplin signed a contract in Sedalia, Missouri, with music publisher John Stillwell Stark to issue a piano piece titled Maple Leaf Rag. Under their arrangement, Joplin received a one-cent-per-copy royalty on all sales, with a mandatory minimum price of twenty-five cents per copy. Joplin had previously seen songs and marches published in Syracuse, New York, and Temple, Texas, but his new partnership with Stark established a commercial avenue that soon delivered the composer both steady financial returns and wide professional recognition.

Born in Texas around late 1867 or early 1868, Joplin grew up in a musical family of railway laborers. After his family relocated to Texarkana, Arkansas, he practiced piano while his mother cleaned local residences. In Texarkana, Joplin received foundational musical training from Julius Weiss, a German immigrant who taught him free of charge, introducing the young musician to European classical forms alongside folk repertoire. By the late 1880s, Joplin gave up railroad work to tour as an itinerant musician throughout the American mid-South, playing in vocal ensembles and dance bands across regional venues where opportunities for African American instrumentalists were severely restricted.