Rubuta ci gaba don wannan sakin layi - Bayan kammala karatunsa daga Boston Latin School a 1937 da Harvard College a 1941, Levenson ya shiga cikin Sojan Ruwa na Amurka a 1942. Ya halarci Makarantar Harshe ta Jafananci kuma ya ga aikin da ake yi a tsibirin Solomon
da kuma kamfen na Philippines. Bayan yakin ya sami digiri na MA (1947) da PhD (1949) a Harvard, inda ya kasance dalibi na John K. Fairbank. Ya kasance memba na Harvard Society of Fellows. Ya koyar a Jami'ar California, Berkeley, daga 1951 har zuwa mutuwarsa. Ya nitse a cikin hadarin jirgin ruwa a Kogin Rasha, California, a 1969.