Editing Scott Joplin (section)

==Later years and death==
[[File:WallStreetRagcover.jpg|thumb|upright|Front cover of the "[[Wall Street Rag]]" (1909) sheet music]]

In 1907, Joplin moved to New York City, which he believed was the best place to find a producer for a new opera. After his move to New York, Joplin met Lottie Stokes, whom he married in 1909.<ref name=Jasen88/> In 1911, unable to find a publisher, Joplin undertook the financial burden of publishing ''[[Treemonisha]]'' himself in piano-vocal format. In 1915, as a last-ditch effort to see it performed, he invited a small audience to hear it at a rehearsal hall in [[Harlem]]. Poorly staged and with only Joplin on piano accompaniment, it was "a miserable failure" to a public not ready for "crude" black musical forms—so different from the European [[grand opera]] of that time.<ref name=Kirk191>[[#Kirk|Kirk (2001)]] p. 191.</ref> The audience, including potential backers, was indifferent and walked out.<ref name=Ryerson>[[#Ryerson|Ryerson (1973)]]</ref> Scott writes that "after a disastrous single performance...Joplin suffered a breakdown. He was bankrupt, discouraged, and worn out." He concludes that few American artists of his generation faced such obstacles: "''Treemonisha'' went unnoticed and unreviewed, largely because Joplin had abandoned commercial music in favor of art music, a field closed to African Americans."<ref name=Scott37>{{harvp|Scott|Rutkoff|2001|p=37}}</ref> It was not until the 1970s that the opera received a full theatrical staging.

In 1914, Joplin and Lottie self-published his "[[Magnetic Rag]]" as the Scott Joplin Music Company, which he had formed the previous December.{{sfnp|Berlin|1994|pp=226, 230}} Biographer [[Vera Brodsky Lawrence]] speculates that Joplin was aware of his advancing deterioration due to [[syphilis]] and was "consciously racing against time." In her sleeve notes on the 1992 [[Deutsche Grammophon]] release of ''Treemonisha'', she notes that he "plunged feverishly into the task of [[orchestration|orchestrating]] his opera, day and night, with his friend Sam Patterson standing by [[copyist|to copy]] out the parts, page by page, as each page of the full score was completed."<ref>[[Vera Brodsky Lawrence]], sleeve notes to 1992 Deutsche Grammophon release of ''Treemonisha'', quoted in [[#Kirk|Kirk (2001)]] p. 191.</ref>

[[File:Scott Joplin Memorial bench 20200806 110917.jpg|thumb|left|Scott Joplin Memorial]]

By 1916, Joplin had developed [[tertiary syphilis]],{{sfnp|Berlin|1994|p=239}}<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,981443,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050111225431/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,981443,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 11, 2005|title=American Schubert| date=September 19, 1994|access-date=November 14, 2009|magazine=Time|first=Michael|last=Walsh}}</ref> but more specifically it was likely [[neurosyphilis]]. On February 2, 1917, he was admitted to [[Manhattan Psychiatric Center|Manhattan State Hospital]], a mental institution.{{sfnp|Berlin|1998}} The "King of Ragtime" died there on April 1 of syphilitic [[dementia]] at the age of 48<ref name=Kirk191/>{{sfnp|Scott|Rutkoff|2001|p=38}} and was buried in a [[pauper's grave]] that remained unmarked for 57 years. His grave, located at [[St. Michael's Cemetery (Queens)|St. Michael's Cemetery]] in [[East Elmhurst, Queens|East Elmhurst]] was finally given a marker in 1974, the year ''[[The Sting]]'', which showcased his music, won Best Picture at the [[Academy Awards|Oscars]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/program.pl?ID=473904|title=Vanderbilt Television News Archive summary|date=October 3, 1974|author=John Chancellor|publisher=Vanderbilt Television News Archive|access-date=December 17, 2011}}</ref>