She’s best known for her first novel, The God of Small Things (1997), which she wrote when she was 37 years old. It’s the birthday of author and political activist Arundhati Roy ( books by this author), born in India (1961). In 1976, the Pulitzer Prize committee recognized Joplin with a posthumous award for his contribution to American music.
Treemonisha was finally staged on Broadway in 1972, and a revival of interest in ragtime prompted director George Roy Hill to use some of Joplin’s compositions in his movie The Sting (1973). He died in a mental institution in 1917, debilitated by the mental and physical effects of syphilis. Joplin tried for the next four years, but in spite of the glowing review, he was never able to present a fully staged production. He finally published the opera himself, and a prominent music magazine reviewed the score and libretto, calling it the most American opera ever composed. He went to New York in 1907 to try to find backers. He worked for several years on a new opera, which he called Treemonisha, about a woman who leads her community out of the ignorance and superstition that are holding them down. Joplin continued composing and publishing music after the setback, but his financial situation never fully recovered. The score to A Guest of Honor had not yet been filed with the Library of Congress, and no copies have survived. What’s more, all of Joplin’s possessions - including the score - were confiscated to pay the boarding house where the troupe was staying. Without the money to pay the touring expenses or the company payroll, the tour ended. He took the opera on the road, but early in the tour the box office receipts were stolen. He formed an opera company and began rehearsals in Sedalia. The invitation polarized the American public, but Joplin admired Roosevelt for extending the invitation. Washington to dinner at the White House in 1901. According to newspaper commentary, the opera was about the time President Theodore Roosevelt invited African-American author and educator Booker T. In 1903, he filed a copyright application for an opera called A Guest of Honor. Joplin’s real ambition was to compose an opera. It became the most popular of all ragtime compositions and earned him a modest but steady income for the rest of his life. In 1899, Joplin published “Maple Leaf Rag,” and he earned a one-cent royalty on every sale. The name came from the syncopated melodies - called “ragged time” - of this musical style, which was reaching the peak of its popularity at the turn of the century.
He published two marches and a waltz in 1896, and in 1898 he tried to sell some original piano compositions in the ragtime genre. In between road trips, he played piano gigs in Sedalia, gave music lessons, and attended music classes at George R. In 1895, he performed with a vocal group in Syracuse, New York.
He played cornet at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 and formed his own band in Sedalia, Missouri. He was listed as a member of a minstrel troupe in Texarkana in 1891. He had a knack for the instrument, and perfect pitch, so a local music teacher named Julius Weiss gave him lessons and taught him about European opera and classical music. It’s possible that that was young Joplin’s first exposure to a piano. His family moved to Texarkana sometime before 1880, and his mother went to work for a white family. He first appeared in the public record on the 1870 census, where he was listed as a “two-year-old child” in northeastern Texas. We don’t know exactly when - or even where - he was born, but today is celebrated by many as the birthday of African-American composer and pianist Scott Joplin, who was born sometime in 1867 or 1868. The smiles that win, the tints that glow,