When Andy Senior, esteemed editor of The Syncopated Times, and Larry Melton, a frequent contributor to this periodical and a founder of the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival (celebrating its 51st year this June) both asked me to review a book for this month’s issue, I was surprised. While my two monthly columns, my liner notes for dozens of recorded releases, and my occasional foray into penning lyrics will testify I’m no stranger to the written word, reviewing other people’s work has never occurred to me. When I learned what the publication to be reviewed was, I agreed with them. I knew Max Morath, the man being celebrated in this book, quite well; indeed his encouraging advice and friendship remain paramount reasons why I’m still making a living as a full-time musician, lecturer, and teacher of all American pop music from the 1890s through the 1940s.
Those looking for a detailed history of Max Morath’s life and professional career won’t find it in Loving Mr. Ragtime, and that’s just fine. Author Diane Fay Skomars does include Morath’s self-written obituary—written only because the New York Times repeatedly requested it—and that’s as much factual information about his copious accomplishments we get. Instead, and far more valuable, we receive insights and anecdotes about the person behind the performer from Skomars, who was married to Morath for his final 30 years of life, and had enjoyed a platonic “courtship” of sorts with him for the 30 years before their union. In short, no one on this earth knew Max Morath better.
In this slim (but by no means slight) volume, Skomars works in reverse chronology, beginning with Morath’s death on Juneteenth, 2024, and leading us backwards in time to their first meeting in 1964. What’s revealed here is an intimate portrait of a famous musician, pianist, composer, entertainer, author, star of radio and television, humorist, and musicologist. While all of these attributes are touched on, Skomars concentrates instead on Morath’s role as husband, life-partner, and family man. In doing so, she provides us with an appreciation of who Max Morath was even more than what he accomplished.
Skomars provides the reader with never-before published passages read from Morath’s funeral, wisdom he shared with family members, and his answers to—as well as his refusal to answer—questions she posed to him about his life and career. She also shares letters and love notes he wrote to her when they were apart, as well as a list he wrote at age 67 (right before he and Skomars married) of hopes and desires he had for them going forward as husband-and-wife.
A highlight is her inclusion of a humorous essay Morath wrote in 1995 for the now-defunct Culturefront: A Magazine Of The Humanities, that either Mark Twain or Garrison Keillor would have been proud to pen. As he refused to write his own memoirs (“Enough has been written about me”), this book is invaluable in illuminating aspects of and details about Max Morath not to be found anywhere else.
Diane Fay Skomars’ writing style is personal, inviting, and generous: a perfect mirror for her subject. Herself an accomplished artist (in the field of photography), public speaker, and world traveler, she brings comprehension not just to Max Morath “behind-the-scenes” but to what it means to her to be a wife, lover, friend, mother, and grandmother, all while enjoying her decades as the spouse of an internationally celebrated performer. While it only took me an hour to read Loving Mr. Ragtime, I’m still flipping through it to find certain catches of phrase or references so generously shared in this memoir-cum-love letter-cum-philisophical exploration. You don’t have to have known (or even heard the music of) Max Morath to enjoy the treasures herein. It’s simply a lovely and loving book.
My one quibble is I wish Skomars had opted for thicker paper and had spread the sixty photographs and images included after the text over more pages so each could be larger (say, two images to a page rather than up to five). This would have enabled the reader to better enjoy the photography—often that of Skomars herself—and allowed Skomars to place her caption underneath each image rather than in list form after the photographic section, saving incessant flipping back-and-forth. While these choices would have made for a more expensive product, I’m sure no-one would have hesitated to pick up a copy if this release cost five dollars more to purchase.
This nitpick aside, Loving Mr. Ragtime is worth your time anytime. This is Diane Fay Skomar’s second full-length publication of her writing. The first is her compilation of a journal she wrote throughout 2003—one entry per day—to her daughter. Published in 2014, Have I Taught You Everything I Know makes for a charming read and, as about half of the entries include Max Morath, is a must for Morathian completists. Indeed, page 22 of that publication is especially revealing, showing a truly different side of Morath.
Highly recommended as well is Skomar’s and Morath’s jointly created celebration of life as a traveling musician called Max Morath: The Road to Ragtime, published in 1999. Author Ralph Schoenstein’s witty and moving tribute to Morath swirls with a heady mixture of Skomar’s stunning photography and Morath’s own wry observations to produce a travel cocktail sure to please.
Perhaps the greatest gift Skomars bestows with Loving Mr. Ragtime is a reminder that every performer and artist of any genre—whether it be music, theater, dance, poetry, or myriad styles of visual art—is a complex entity outside their professional output or public persona. It’s easier than ever to view content creators as only existing onstage (or onscreen), disappearing the instant their performance, gallery exhibition, reading, or video is over. Diane Fay Skomars celebrates the humanity of one of history’s greatest entertainers, and in reading her book we ourselves are invited reconnect with our own.
Loving Mr. Ragtime: Max Morath
By Diane Fay Skomars
Mill City Press, Inc.
amazon.com; barnesandnoble.com
Paperback: 152 pages; $15.49
ISBN: 9798868506352
Jeff Barnhart is an internationally renowned pianist, vocalist, arranger, bandleader, recording artist, ASCAP composer, educator and entertainer. Visit him online atwww.jeffbarnhart.com. Email: Mysticrag@aol.com
