Photo: Mike Bernard
About
The Book
Many facts of Mike Bernard's life remain a mystery,
but one thing is certain. He was one of the most brilliant and influential popular musicians of his day, taking ragtime
piano to new technical heights and, in 1900, winning the official title "Ragtime King
of the World." As musical director and later a headline act at Tony Pastor's famous
New York vaudeville theater, Mike was known for his ability to transform the simplest tune into a complex musical
masterpiece by virtue of his stunning command of the keyboard and amazing gift for improvisation.
With a lucrative contract as a Columbia Records artist, Mike's celebrity
and fortune were destined for even greater heights. But he was not without his detractors, those who considered him
a white "pretender" to the throne of ragtime, a musical genre based on African rhythms and rooted in the
American black community. And there were others, music critics and pillars of "polite" society, who viewed
the syncopated rhythms of ragtime as nothing less than an insidious threat to the moral fiber of the nation.
As controversy surrounded his professional life, inner demons surfaced to sabotage his personal
relationships. Ashamed of his origins in the tenements of New York, tormented by a failed love affair,
unable to open his heart even to the child who desperately needed him, Mike's growing isolation threatened to
overshadow everything he had achieved. Ragtime King of the World, a work of fiction inspired
by Mike Bernard's life, tells the story of a gifted musician struggling with his creative genius, secret fears
and darkest obsessions against the social and political backdrop of turn-of-the-century New York.
Author Elizabeth Hutchison Bernard is a writer and musician living in Westchester County, New York.
Her husband, Bob, is the grandson of Mike Bernard.
