Maple Leaf Rag to its publication, Joplin anticipated that the piece would be a success—he told Arthur Marshall that "The Maple Leaf will make me the king of ragtime composers". The exact circumstances which led to publication of the "Maple Leaf Rag" are unknown, and there are versions of the event which contradict each other. After approaching several publishers, Joplin signed a contract with John Stillwell Stark on August 10, 1899 for a $0.01 royalty on all sales of the rag, with a minimum sales price of $0.25. The "Maple Leaf Rag" was published between August 10 and September 20, 1899, when the
Maple Leaf (shipwreck) Maple Leaf (shipwreck) Maple Leaf is a United States National Historic Landmark shipwreck in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. "Maple Leaf", a side paddlewheel steamship, was first launched as a freight and passenger vessel from the Marine Railway Yard in Kingston, Upper Canada in 1851. The sidewheel paddle steamer measured at the beam. "Maple Leaf" was a civilian merchant steamship, chartered as a transport by the Union Army during American Civil War, that struck a Confederate torpedo - what we would now call a mine - as she was crossing the St. Johns River near Jacksonville on April 1, 1864. Four