With the death of an infant daughter and the breakup of his marriage to Belle Hayden—sister of his protégé and constant collaborator, Scott Hayden—in 1906 Joplin, billed as "King of Ragtime Composers—Author of Maple Leaf Rag," disappears into the limbo of the nomad and itinerant vaudeville entertainer. We catch sight of him again in 1907 or 1908 being introduced to the 20-year-old Joseph Francis Lamb—now recognized as the third in the triumvirate of classic ragtime composers after Joplin and James Scott—in John Stark's music store in New York City. Joplin invited him visit. "I went to his boarding house a few evenings later and he asked me to play my pieces on the piano in the parlor. A lot of colored people were sitting around talking. I played my Sensation first and they began to crowd around and watch me. When I finished, Joplin said, 'That's a good rag—a regular Negro rag.' That's what I wanted to hear...." On Joplin's recommendation, Sensation was published by Stark Music Co. in 1908 with notice on the cover, "Arranged by Scott Joplin," suggested by Joplin as a way to instant recognition for the unknown composer. Stark continued to publish Lamb's rags right through World War I, even as newborn jazz elbowed its ragtime parent aside. In 1909 Joplin married Lottie Stokes, who proved a loving companion and capable helpmate managing the rooming house ménage, populated by musicians and theater people, in which he felt at home. Gladiolus Rag, published in 1907 by Stern in New York, had been a milestone in Joplin's drive toward a more supple, richer way with ragtime, even as rag's simple four-strain format invited facile, pounding, commercial imitation whose innate vacuity would saturate the market. From Gladiolus on, nearly everything to which Joplin turned his hand emerged as an opulent concatenation, seemingly but deceptively straightforward. Nonpareil, Lily Queen (with Scott Hayden), and—in collaboration with the doomed Louis Chauvin—Heliotrope Bouquet in 1907, with Sugar Cane and Pine Apple Rag the following year, combine exuberance with subtlety and superb workmanship, setting the stage for the uniquely happy masterpieces of 1909—the sleekly purring Wall Street Rag, the seductive tango/maxixe Solace, the intricate invention of Euphonic Sounds, and the escalating incandescence of the Paragon Rag, with its second strain reminiscence of the bordello ballad Bucket's Got a Hole in It—Can't Get No Beer, and deft breaks anticipating Zez Confrey and Billy Mayerl.

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