James Freeman Clarke (1810–88) was an American author, editor, abolitionist, and Unitarian minister. Born in Hanover, New Hampshire in 1810, Clarke was a Unitarian theologian and Harvard professor. Clarke studied at Harvard Divinity School from 1829–33, where he became deeply influenced by the Transcendentalist movement (though he eventually rejected the label). Clarke published early poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson while serving as editor of the Western Messenger, a Unitarian magazine he co-founded to promote liberal Christian thought.