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.

“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.

• 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