Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953) studied piano as a child and was self-taught as a composer until she entered the American Conservatory. After early works influenced by Alexander Scriabin, she wrote several serial pieces, including the String Quartet (1931). She married the musicologist Charles Seeger in 1931, becoming the folk singer Pete Seeger’s stepmother. She composed little after that but became an influential curator of American folk music.