The Ragtime Fool

Its 1951, and ragtime is making a comeback. In Sedalia, Missouri, plans are well along for a ceremony to honor Scott Joplin. Brun Campbell, the old Ragtime Kid, is working to establish Joplins legacy. Brun learns of a journal Joplin kept and wants to show it to Sedalias movers and shakers, hoping to persuade them to set up a ragtime museum. Unfortunately for Brun, authorhistorian Rudi Blesh is determined to publish the journal. Also, Joplins old friend wants to suppress the material. Even worse, two Sedalia Klansmen are hot after the journal, and dont care if they have to kill someone to get it. Whats one murder, compared to the Klansmens grand plan to blow up the high school auditorium with its integrated audience during the ceremony? In the middle of this imbroglio is Alan Chandler, a 17-year-old pianist in love with ragtime.