James Franklin Clarke Jr.

James Franklin Clarke Jr. (June 5, 1906 – December 5, 1982) was an American historian who dedicated his life to the study of the history of the activities of American Protestants and their missionaries on the Balkans, and especially contributed to the spread of Protestantism in Bulgaria. He founded the academic studies on Bulgarian history in the United States.

Biography He was born on June 5, 1906, to second-generation American missionaries in Bitola, then part of the Ottoman Empire (now in North Macedonia), where his father, William P. Clarke, was a missionary. He was the grandson of James Franklin Clarke Sr., who was one of the first American missionaries among the Bulgarians. During the Balkan Wars and World War I, the Clarke family lived in Bitola. In 1919, they moved to Thessaloniki. They later moved to Switzerland and then to England, where Clarke received primary education. The family moved to the United States, where Clarke graduated from high school in Boston. Clarke was interested in Balkan affairs from his early youth. He authored a collection of studies on Bulgarian history, called The pen and the sword, edited by Dennis P. Hupchick. The Bulgarian government gave him the Order of Cyril and Methodius (Class I) for his contribution to Bulgarian studies. Despite suffering from cancer, he continued researching and attending conferences. In his last interview with the Bulgarian media in 1981, he cited Mihail Arnaudov, Vasil Zlatarski, Yordan Ivanov, Petar Nikov and Stefan Bobchev as his influences, just like in his doctoral dissertation. On December 5, 1982, Clarke died at his home in Pittsburgh, United States. In his honor, the Association for Bulgarian Studies gave a scholarship for young scientists. Due to his contributions to Bulgarian history, he has been credited as the founder of historical Bulgarian studies in the United States.