Kevin McElhone is searching for the birth and death dates of certain
composers, one of which is Max Hoffman, who was born in Gnesen, Poland,
on December 8, 1873, and died in Hollywood, California, on May 21 1963.

To the ragtime fraternity Hoffman -- a Tin Pan Alley arranger and
orchestrator -- was an unremarkable but hardly "obscure" composer.
The authors of "Rags And Ragtime", Trebor Tichenor and Dave Jasen, were
clearly unimpressed with many of Max's contributions to the ragtime
repertoire, saying dismissively :

"Most of his early original work such as that contained in the Witmark
'Pioneer Ragtime Folio' is mediocre -- restless syncopes that ignore
the need for some measure of lyricism and melody."

One or two other ragtime composers of my acquaintance would fit quite
well into that category.

John Farrell
http://homepages.tesco.net/~stridepiano/