Gilbert Arthur Highet (/ˈhaɪɪt/;[1] June 22, 1906 – January 20, 1978) was a Scottish American classicist, academic writer, intellectual critic, and literary historian.

His Oxford career was distinguished by a First in Classical Moderations, 1930,[4] an Ireland and Craven Scholarship, 1930,[5] the Chancellor's Prize for Latin Verse, 1931,[6] and a First in Literae Humaniores ('Greats', philosophy and ancient history) in 1932.

In 1965, at Columbia, Highet cancelled one of his lectures in order to protest that a representative of the New York Mattachine Society, an early gay rights organization, was being allowed to speak at Ferris Booth Hall.

Like others teaching at Columbia at this time—Lionel Trilling, Mark Van Doren, Eric Bentley, Ernest Nagel—Gilbert Highet conceived of his work as the fostering of a tradition.

He reminded students (not surprisingly) of a British Army officer—of the kind portrayed by Jack Hawkins in motion pictures—tall, erect, handsome, clean-shaven, and impeccably dressed.

He consistently gave his audience a commanding performance, whether he spoke or sang or stood or walked, with a presence comparable to that of Laurence Olivier or John Houseman.

... With his powerful and speculative mind, he gave his students an extraordinary intellectual experience, capped by a showmanship perhaps unparalleled in the American college classroom."