Between the Covers

Softcover. First edition. Words and music by Ernest Hogan. Arranged by J.A. Raynes. Folio. One sheet folded to make four pages. Measuring approximately 10½" x 13½" closed. Cover illustrated with a portrait of Hogan and an image of a nicely dressed African-American woman. Modest creasing and a couple of small faint stains, bottom corners with tiny chips, very good or better. Written expressly for *The Sunday Examiner* and printed via Latimer's Musigraph Process.

African-American composer and entertainer Ernest Hogan (1865-1909) is noted for helping popularize Ragtime music as well as for his association with "The Oyster Man," an early Broadway show written and produced by African-Americans. In their book *Ragged but Right*, authors Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff note that Hogan's place in the world of African-American performers has only been seriously studied since about 2000, not least of all because of his 1896 smash hit "All Coons Look Alike to Me." To the contrary, they draw attention to "The Smart Set," created with Billy McClain in 1902. The act was "an especially significant vehicle for constructive change on the early 20th Century American stage. Comedian-producers of The Smart Set laid the foundation for a new era in Black comedy by bringing forth recognizable characters who spoke more directly to Black audiences. No other entertainment entity embodied this change so vividly."

A very uncommon piece of sheet music from a pioneering and understudied African-American composer and performer.

Item #526022