Telephone: 646.801.4227
Philippa Duke Schuyler
"This is how I have lived for over a decade, in sixty countries, in black and white moods, among black and white people, and with my only permanent companion, a black and white keyboard."
PHILIPPA DUKE SCHUYLER (1931-1967) was a mixed-race child prodigy, pianist, composer, journalist and author. She was the daughter of George S. Schuyler, a highly esteemed black journalist, and Josephine Cogdell, a wealthy white Texan from a former slave-owning ranching and banking family. Schuyler’s mixed-race background was notable because her parents believed that only miscegenation could help solve the racial and social issues in the United States. She became famous in the 1930s and 1940s for her unique musical talents, mixed-race background, and the abnormal methods her parents used to raise her. During the 1950s, she was easily booking performances as a young concert pianist throughout Europe, South America, and Africa, but failed to find similar success and acclaim in the United States. By the time Schuyler entered her thirties, she expanded her career beyond music to working as a journalist like her father. Fluent in several languages, she published several books over her career. By 1965, she was employed by the Manchester Union Leader in New Hampshire, and soon after became their correspondent covering the Vietnam War. Tragically, on May 9, 1967, Schuyler died near Da Nang, Vietnam at the age of 36 when a U.S. Army helicopter she was in crashed into the ocean.
