Levitansky studied at the Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature, and History and then served in World War II as a soldier, officer, and front-line correspondent. He published his first collection, Soldatstyia doroga (A Soldier’s Road), in Irkutsk in 1948. His poetry is gentle and philosophical, in some respects reminiscent of Leonid Martynov. He is the author of parodies of contemporary poets and willingly uses irony in his intellectual verse. Never a delegate to Writers Union congresses or involved in public affairs, Levitansky nevertheless signed the petition of defense for Andrey Sinyavsky and Yuly Daniel during their infamous trial in 1966.
