As a member of the first generation of African Americans who were born just after the end of slavery, Scott Joplin faced a world of unique challenges. His musical family scraped out a living by sharecropping and cleaning houses-but Scott was exceptionally gifted, and his mother made sure he got piano lessons. Classically trained, he spent several years playing in churches and saloons. While for a time he wanted to compose classical music, he was drawn...

Scott Joplin came from a music-making family in Texarkana, Texas. As a small boy, he loved the lively, rhythmic African melodies and the soft, touching spirituals that he heard his father sing. By the age of twenty, Joplin had left home to make a living as a musician. Barbara Mitchell's Raggin' is the story of this talented composer/musician who overcame prejudice and hardship to create such favorites as "Maple Leaf Rag" and "The Entertainer"--music...

From the award-winning writer of The Good House, The Living Blood, and more, Joplin's Ghost is a chilling tale of a star-in-the-making whose life goes haywire as she is haunted by the ghost of a long-dead music legend. When Phoenix Smalls was ten, she nearly died at her parents' jazz club when she was crushed by a turn-of-the-century piano. Now twenty-four, Phoenix is launching a career as an R & B singer. She's living the life young artists envy...

Traces the life of the well-known ragtime pianist and composer who wrote over 500 pieces of music, including a ballet and two operas.