Upright folio. Illustrated cover; 2 - 5 pp; publisher's catalogue. Small tears to lower and right edges, lower quarter of spine split but holding strong, small handling stains to corners, overall a fine copy of the very rare first edition of the first of Scott Joplin's rags ever to appear in print, in early 1899, preceding his "Maple Leaf Rag" by half a year. 

The tune's copyright was registered on March 15, 1899, and it was first published here by Carl Hoffman of Kansas City, Missouri.  The cover page shows an elderly black man picking up rags in front of a ramshackle cabin, this scene generally interpreted as a double pun, first on the activities of a rag (or junk) picker, and second on a slang term for ragtime, "picking the piano". The rag was given the following credits: "Picked By Scott Joplin / Arranged By Chas. N. Daniels." It is not known whether Charles N. Daniels actually arranged the piece, or merely transcribed it, but Joplin biographer Rudi Blesh thought it more likely that the credit to Daniels was the publisher's way of acknowledging his help in recommending the piece for publication; Blesh wrote that the music was "unmistakably Joplin" in style. (see Blesh, "Scott Joplin: Black-American Classicist", Introduction to Scott Joplin Complete Piano Works, New York Public Library, 1981, p. xx)