Hart Day Leavitt

Who was Hart Day Leavitt?

Hart Day Leavitt was a longtime English teacher at Phillips Andover Academy, amateur jazz musician, the author of a bestselling book on grammar and writing, and the professor of many notable Andover graduates, including Jack Lemmon, H. G. Bissinger and President George H. W. Bush.

A native of Concord, New Hampshire, where his father, Congregational minister Ashley Day Leavitt, was pastor of a church, Leavitt was born December 29, 1909. Ironically, he attended Andover's archrival, nearby Phillips Exeter Academy, and subsequently graduated from Yale University, his father's alma mater, in 1934. Following his Yale graduation, Leavitt studied at the Bread Loaf school at Middlebury College.

Soon afterwards, Leavitt took a $22-a-week job as a cub reporter on a New Hampshire newspaper. During his time as a reporter, the mother of Leavitt's fiancée suggested that he read And Gladly Teach, a book by Perry Bliss, brother of Phillips Exeter's principal. The book so captivated Leavitt that he immediately presented himself at the office of the Exeter principal, where he asked for a job. But with no graduate degrees, he was rejected.

Leavitt next turned to the competition: Phillips Andover in Andover, Massachusetts, where headmaster Claude M. Fuess was intrigued by the thought of hiring a graduate of his archrival. "I was a bit disappointed not to go back to my old school," Leavitt said years later, "but not for long." Leavitt joined the Massachusetts preparatory school's English department, where he taught for nearly 40 years.