For those who don't know, Ruth Crawford Seeger was one of the most noteworthy composers of classical music using dissonant harmonies. It takes a lot of getting used to (to my ears, it's just awful; Peggy Seeger herself called it "very, very strange modern music." As an example, she put one piece in 21/8 time with occasional measures in 15/8 and 18/8). She started composing by age twenty. She was awarded her Masters in music, summa cum laude, in 1927. She became the first woman to earn a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition.

She began playing piano at six, and was giving lessons before she finished high school -- and practiced so much in college that she actually hurt herself.

It might be noted that she got pregnant by Charles Seeger before he had even gotten out of his previous marriage. The Seegers were thoroughly unconventional. :-)

There is a book about Ruth Crawford Seeger, Judith Tick, Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Composer's Search for American Music, Oxford University Press, 1997. There is also a lot about her in Ann M. Pescatello, Charles Seeger: A Life in American Music, University of Pittsburg Press, 1992.