James Freeman Clarke, born in Hanover, New Hampshire, and educated at the Latin School of Boston, Harvard College, and Harvard Divinity School, was a liberal Unitarian minister who, as editor of the Western Messenger in Louisville, Kentucky, from 1836 to 1839 and as pastor of the Church of the Disciples in Boston from 1841 until his death (except for a three-year hiatus), established a reputation as editor, translator of German literature, Transcendentalist fellow-traveler, minor poet, literary scholar, eloquent preacher, social reformer, prolific theological writer, and leading figure in the New England and national Unitarian movement of his time. From 1866 to 1885 he served virtually without interruption as member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College. From 1867 to 1871 and in 1876 he taught courses in comparative religion at Harvard Divinity School. His role as radical thinker, litterateur, and churchman contrasts with that of his friends Orestes Brownson, William Henry Channing, Christopher Cranch, John...