His best-known works include the pieces "Trombone Johnsen" (1902), "Billiken Rag" (1913), and "Gum Shoe" (1917), and the arrangements for the collection "Fifteen Standard High Class Rags" (1912), popularly known as "The Red Back Book".
All of the Stark children, including sister Eleanor and brother William were talented musically, but E.J.
Stark became a music instructor, first at the Marmaduke Military Academy in Sweet Springs, Missouri.
When Marmaduke burned in 1896, Stark moved to Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri.
He later wrote several other notable ragtime piano compositions, all published by his father, including a few under the alias "Bud Manchester".