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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 to ragtime, an early form of jazz that featured African folk tunes and syncopated rhythms. After his first composition, "Maple Leaf Rag," was published in 1899, Scott Joplin was able to keep ragtime popular for the next two decades. In fact, ragtime influences can be heard in later forms of music, such as jazz, blues, and even rock and roll. Scott Joplin, the Father of Ragtime, whose compositions cut across geography, race, and class, was truly a Master of Music.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, John Bankston began writing professionally while still a teenager. Since then, over two hundred of his articles have been published in magazines and newspapers across the country, including travel articles in The Tallahassee Democrat, The Orlando Sentinel and The Tallahassean. He is the author of over 175 books for young adults, including works on Alexander the Great, scientist Stephen Hawking, actor Jodi Foster, and authors including Katherine Paterson, Ray Bradbury and F. Scott Fitzgerald. His young adult trilogy, The Academy, was published in August. He lives in Huntington Beach, California with his rescue dog.
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