Author

James Freeman Clarke(1810–1888)

James Freeman Clarke is documented in Fuller’s letters, published essays, and journals (1835–1845). 4 distinct works are named, most often in Letter to James F. Clarke, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “excerpted”.

Engagement: ExcerptedAnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned
Present in: Letters · Essays · Journals
Documented: 1835–1845

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this author is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

Confirmed reading

Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had James Freeman Clarke’s work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.

Dated
1835Niagara. The Bridge by Moonlight. To Ellen SturgisDemonstrated
“thus goes the old / Or if it stays, its flower and freshness gone Fetters the limb weighs down the heart like stone”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · Groton 1st Feb 1835
Several consecutive lines of Clarke's poem quoted verbatim, a sustained excerpt rather than a phrase.

In Fuller’s words

“Father! we ask / The strong conviction which thy spirit brings / To touch the secret springs / And kindle life in natures cold & weak. ... God! hear the prayer sincere / Oh, thou canst not disown / The soul before thy throne / Casting itself, resolved, though full of fear. ... J. F. C. From the Boston Pearl. / THE BRIDGE, BY MOONLIGHT. / Around the rushing waters brightly gleam, ... / Niagara, June 17, 1834. J. F. C.”

untitled prayer-poem ('Father! we ask...'), 'The Bridge, by Moonlight' · Journal April 1839 · 1839

When Fuller engaged with James Freeman Clarke

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed1record

IV. Transcendentalist4records

V. New York1record

VI. Europe

✦. Memoirs (1852)

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.

Clarke in Fuller’s reading world

Documentary evidence

Selected passages from Fuller’s own writings, in chronological order.

1835—

Letter to James F. Clarke

p220

analyzed · quoted · read

“by which I was reminded of some lines of yours which I saw lately not where I should have seen them first!”

Fuller, Margaret. "To James F. Clarke, 1 February 1835." In The Letters of Margaret Fuller, Vol. I: 1817–1838, edited by Robert N. Hudspeth, 219–222. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Inferred Fuller quotes two lines from Clarke's "Niagara.

To Ellen Sturgis, August 1834," saying the lines have "quite obliterated the impression your yawning account of Niagara made upon me last summer." Though Hudspeth notes the poem was never published (existing only in manuscript copies), Fuller says she saw it "in print,"which may refer to a written manuscript copy she encountered.

1837—

Letter to Caroline Sturgis

p304

analyzed · read

“I wish I had room to tell you about some of my late experiences Deleuze's history of Prevision— six sermons from James Clarke— W. Simmons's recitation and what I thought.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Inferred Hudspeth identified these sermons Clarke preached in Providence; his journal records Fuller's reactions to sermons on topics including "Utilitarianism," "Social Distinctions," and "Resurrection."

1839—

Letter to James F. Clarke

p33

read

“About putting beautiful verses in your Magazine, I have no feeling except what I should have about furnishing a room.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.

1839—

Journal April 1839

p63

excerpted · readManuscript page

“Father! we ask / The strong conviction which thy spirit brings / To touch the secret springs / And kindle life in natures cold & weak. ... God!”

Fuller, Margaret. "Journal April 1839." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (Box A); Box 5 (99).

The first poem is an untitled spiritual/prayer lyric on pp. 63–64, also signed J.F.C. Both poems cataloged in a single row per the manuscript de-duplication rule.

1843—

Letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson

p159

read

“It is for this I want back Triformis, intending to make a chapter at Chicago. [...] I shall put a part of one of S.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. III. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986.

Inferred Hudspeth identified "Triformis" as James Freeman Clarke's poem, published without attribution in Fuller's Summer on the Lakes.

1845—

The Excellence of Goodness. A Sermon . . .

“The Excellence of Goodness. A Sermon . . .”

mentioned2 selected passages

“Two clergymen, the Rev. Mr. Sargeant and the Rev. Mr. Clarke, of the Church of the Disciples, have this winter chosen to exchange with the excommunicated preacher”

“The Rev. Mr. Clarke, of the Church of the Disciples, has, in the public prints upon this occasion, in a truly manly and enlightened manner, exhibited the true grounds and modes of tolerance.”

Fuller, Margaret. "The Excellence of Goodness. A Sermon . . ." New-York Daily Tribune, 26 February 1845.