George Schuyler, a renowned black journalist of the Harlem Renaissance, and Josephine Cogdell, a blond, blue-eyed Texas heiress and granddaughter of slave owners, believed that intermarriage would `invigorate' the races, thereby producing extraordinary offspring. Their daughter, Philippa Duke Schuyler, became the embodiment of this theory. Able to read and write at the age of two and a half, a pianist at four, and a composer by five, Phillippa was often compared to Mozart. But as an adult she mysteriously dropped out of sight, performing for dignitaries around the world, and embarking on a career as a right-wing journalist -- `Felipa Monterro' from Madagascar -- who supported the Vietnam war. On May 9, 1967, at the age of 35, her life was tragically cut short in a helicopter accident over Da Nang.

The first authorized biography of Philippa Schuyler, Composition in Black and White draws on previously unpublished letters and diaries to reveal an extraordinary and complex personality.