Everything about John Stillwell Stark totally explained
John Stillwell Stark (
April 11,
1841 -
November 20,
1927) was a
United States publisher of
ragtime music. He is best known for publishing and promoting the music of
Scott Joplin.
John Stark was the eleventh of twelve children born to Adin Stark and Eleanor Stillwell Stark of
Shelby County, Kentucky. He grew up in
Gosport, Indiana, and served in the
Union Army during the
U.S. Civil War, where he played the bugle. He married Sarah Ann Casey and raised a family, earning his living as a farmer, first in
Indiana and then in
Missouri. Eventually he tired of farming and went into the new business of
ice-cream making, and to further supplement his income, began selling
organs and
pianos. In
1885 he settled in
Sedalia, Missouri, and entered the music business full-time, founding John Stark and Son with his then 15-year old son William.
It was in
1899 in Sedalia that he heard Scott Joplin play
The Maple Leaf Rag, and bought the number for fifty dollars plus royalties. It was a prosperous arrangement for both of them. A million copies were eventually sold, which enabled Stark to open an office in
St. Louis, Missouri (and later
New York City), and Joplin to engage in composing for a living. Over the next two decades, Stark published and promoted the
"classic" style rag pioneered by Joplin and which included
Joseph Lamb,
James Scott,
Arthur Marshall,
Paul Pratt,
Artie Matthews,
Robert Hampton,
J. Russel Robinson, and
Etilmon J. Stark (his son).
After his wife died in
1910, Stark closed the New York office and returned to St. Louis. By this time New York's
Tin Pan Alley was dominating ragtime music sales. He continued to bring out new rags until 1922, well after ragtime had succumbed to jazz, which Stark despised. He died in St. Louis in 1927.
Further Information
Get more info on 'John Stillwell Stark'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://john_stillwell_stark.totallyexplained.com">John Stillwell Stark Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
