Hamilton Gazetteer / Entities / Grant Lewi

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person

Overview

William Grant Lewi, Jr. (1902–1951) was a Hamilton College alumnus of the Class of 1924 who went on to become one of the most widely read popular astrologers in twentieth-century America. At Hamilton he excelled academically and as a debater and writer, earning scholarship honors and competing in the Clark Prize oratorical contest in his senior year. After graduation he had experience in teaching and in business, and contributed writing to publications such as World’s Work under the pen names Leo Rising and Scorpio, as well as under his own name. He later published the influential astrological guides “Heaven Knows What” (1935) and “Astrology for the Millions” (1940), which remained in print for decades.

Lewi maintained some connection to Hamilton after graduation: a 1924 alumni note records a poem he published in Love Story Magazine, and a 1926 item records him writing from Dakota. By the mid-1930s the Hamilton Life was noting his Vanguard Press novel, and in 1937 he was cited in the literary column for his novel “The Gods Arrive.”

Relevance to Research

Lewi is a notable Hamilton alumnus whose intellectual formation on the Hill — as debater, writer, and prize contestant — preceded an unusual post-collegiate career as a popular author and astrologer. His trajectory illustrates the range of paths taken by Hamilton graduates in the interwar period and connects the college to the broader American popular-culture publishing world of the 1930s and 1940s.

Notes