Leonard Levitt

Leonard Levitt is an American author known for his books about crime and the New York City Police Department. He is an Edgar Award winner and worked as a Peace Corps teacher in Tanzania in the early and mid-sixties.

He is also the author of An African Season about his experiences in Tanzania and as a teacher. It was the first book ever written by a Peace Corps.

One of his students at Mpuguso Middle in Rungwe District in the Southern Highlands Province, Tanzania, in 1964, was Godfrey Mwakikagile who became a renowned African studies scholar and author of many non-fiction books on African history, economics and politics.

Another student of Levitt at Mpugusowas Oscar Mwamwaja, one of Tanzania's first commercial airline pilots who survived an Air Tanzania hijacking on 26 February 1982, during which he was forced to fly from Tanzania to Britain. Levitt also wrote about Oscar and about his experience as a teacher in Tanzania in the article "Tanzania: A Dream Deferred".

Oscar Mwamwaja and Godfrey Mwakikagile were first cousins.