Background
In 1909, Scott Joplin orchestrated for "Frog Legs Rag" to be published by John Stillwell Stark, Joplin's publisher, and his company, Stark Music Company. Edward A. Berlin, author of the Joplin biography King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era asserts that there was no direct evidence that James Scott and Scott Joplin were personally acquainted. "They certainly knew each other's music," Berlin affirms while describing the Joplin orchestration, and they "had similar temperaments, both being mild-mannered, quiet, and thoroughly engrossed in their music". However, he considers assertions of personal acquaintance between the two men to be speculation.
Other music historians take a different view. The authors of Black Bottom Stump credit Joplin for discovering and mentoring the young artist "even while his own career was faltering" and assert that "Frog Legs Rag" was published "at Joplin's insistence".
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