Hart Day Leavitt - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Hart Day Leavitt was a longtime English teacher at Phillips Andover Academy

Phillips Academy

Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year...

, amateur jazz musician, the author of a bestselling

Bestseller

A bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on lists of currently top selling titles that are based on publishing industry and book trade figures and published by newspapers, magazines, or bookstore chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and...

book on grammar and writing, and the professor of many notable Andover graduates, including Jack Lemmon

Jack Lemmon

John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...

, H. G. Bissinger

H. G. Bissinger

Harry Gerard Bissinger III, also known as H. G. Bissinger and Buzz Bissinger , is an American journalist and author, best known for his non-fiction book Friday Night Lights.-Early life and education:...

and President George H. W. Bush

George H. W. Bush

George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...

.

A native of Concord, New Hampshire

Concord, New Hampshire

The city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42,695....

, where his father, Congregational minister Ashley Day Leavitt

Ashley Day Leavitt

Rev. Dr. Ashley Day Leavitt was a Yale-educated Congregational minister who led the State Street Church in Portland, Maine, and later the Harvard Congregational Church in Brookline, Massachusetts...

, was pastor of a church, Leavitt was born December 29, 1909. Ironically, he attended Andover's archrival, nearby Phillips Exeter Academy

Phillips Exeter Academy

Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...

, and subsequently graduated from Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

, his father's alma mater, in 1934. Following his Yale graduation, Leavitt studied at the Bread Loaf

Bread Loaf Writers' Conference

The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is a writers' conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont...

school at Middlebury College

Middlebury College

Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...

.

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

Engagement

An engagement or betrothal is a promise to marry, and also the period of time between proposal and marriage which may be lengthy or trivial. During this period, a couple is said to be betrothed, affianced, engaged to be married, or simply engaged...

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

Andover, Massachusetts

Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was incorporated in 1646 and as of the 2010 census, the population was 33,201...

, 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

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

preparatory school's English department, where he taught for nearly 40 years.

During his time at Andover, Leavitt authored three books about creative writing, including Stop, Look, and Write, which became a bestseller with over a million copies in print. He also indulged his first love, jazz, by playing sax and clarinet in several jazz ensembles. At age 14 Leavitt received a saxophone from his father, and he played through Exeter and Yale, and at one time considered a career as a musician. "At one point," the teacher recalled, "I thought I'd make jazz my profession."

But when Leavitt joined the Andover faculty, jazz was somewhat outré. "Back in the 1940s the school was run by old conservatives, most of whom thought jazz was evil music", Leavitt later told musician and Andover graduate Thomas Chapin

Thomas Chapin

Thomas Chapin was an American composer and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist. Though primarily an alto saxophonist, he also played sopranino saxophone and various flutes....

, recalling an invitation by some of his students to play with their band. "So I decided to go in and ask the headmaster who hired me if it would be all right to perform with the boys and their band. The boss looked at me disapprovingly. 'Well, Hart if you want to do that kind of thing! So I had to refuse."

In his faculty role on the Andover campus, Leavitt wore several hats, including five years coaching the varsity hockey team (1945–50). The team normally played on Rabbit Pond as an ice hockey rink had not yet been built. Following his stint as a coach, Leavitt switched gears, and embracing his love of carpentry and theater, headed up the stage crew at the old George Washington Hall theater. In his one on-stage performance, the English teacher appeared as one of the gangsters in Kiss Me, Kate

Kiss Me, Kate

Kiss Me, Kate is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It is structured as a play within a play, where the interior play is a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The original production starred Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang.Kiss...

, crooning "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" in a thick gangster accent.

Leavitt often joked with colleagues about his education at rival Exeter. A handful of other Andover faculty were also Exeter graduates, and the group referred to themselves as "the red cell" among the blue. (Exeter's school colors are maroon and white; Andover's blue and white.) "For this teenager it all began," said Andover alum and fellow teacher of English Thomas Regan, "with the mystery of how an Exonian could develop such lifelong loyalty to Andover."

Former President George H. W. Bush

George H. W. Bush

told Time magazine in an interview that he recalled writing several book reviews for Leavitt's English class, including one for Moby Dick. Bush received a grade of 67 in the class. (A grade of 60 was a failing grade).

About his former student Leavitt was circumspect, recalling that "his grades in my course were not very good. He was in my eleventh-grade English class, but my remaining impression is that he just sat in the class and handed in his papers." Leavitt recalled having "very little respect for George's mentality." But, Leavitt allowed, "I have to go back and say that when he was in my class maybe he was an underdeveloped young man like a lot of them."

"He showed no imagination or originality", Leavitt told Time, although he added that Bush was pleasant and had good manners. Leavitt also taught George's brother, Prescott Bush Jr., and noted that the Bush brothers' Senator father

Prescott Bush

Prescott Sheldon Bush was a Wall Street executive banker and a United States Senator, representing Connecticut from 1952 until January 1963. He was the father of George H. W. Bush and the grandfather of George W...

was too self-possessed to engage in small talk.

Nearing the end of his Andover career, a former student recalled Leavitt as "on the verge of retirement and still playing regular saxophone gigs with a big band." Following his retirement from Phillips Andover at age 65, Leavitt was appointed to the faculty of Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, where he taught expository writing to freshmen for five years. At the end of his Harvard stint, and again facing retirement, Leavitt got himself appointed to a job teaching English at Tufts University

Tufts University

Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...

.

Leavitt was married to Carol for 63 years. Among their shared interests were music – she loved classical, and he loved jazz. His wife encouraged Leavitt to take up the clarinet, and he dragged her to smoky jazz clubs to listen to his favorite jazz artists, including Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...

. Together they were instrumental in bringing the Andover Chamber Music Series to the town.

Hart Day Leavitt died October 10, 2008, in North Andover, Massachusetts

North Andover, Massachusetts

North Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. North Andover is the home of Merrimack College, a private, Catholic four-year institution ....

. A memorial service was held at Kemper Auditorium at Phillips Andover on November 15.

External links

Obituary for Hart Day Leavitt, The Boston Globe, Boston, Mass., November 2, 2008

External links

Further reading

See also