Lucas, Fielding, Jr.
LUCAS, FIELDING, JR.
U.S. publisher and bookseller; b. Fredericksburg, Virginia, Sept. 3, 1781; d. Baltimore, Maryland, March 12, 1854. For almost 40 years Lucas was Baltimore's leading publisher and, after Mathew carey's death in Philadelphia (1839), the major U.S. Catholic book publisher. He regularly did business with Carey, with whom he exchanged stereotype plates; historically, Lucas is noted for printing atlases and maps. He began Catholic publications with textbooks written by members of the faculty of Mt. St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Between 1838 and 1841, the active Lucas catalogue included 154 Catholic titles on popular dogmatic, apologetic, and devotional subjects. Widely circulated in annual editions of 3,000 or more was the Metropolitan Catholic Almanac and Laity's Directory (1833–57), a continuation of the U.S. Catholic Almanac, or Laity's Directory, acquired (1833) from James Myres, also of Baltimore. Although Lucas attended church services regularly, he became a Catholic only during his last illness.
Bibliography: j. w. foster, "Fielding Lucas, Jr., Early 19th Century Publisher of Fine Books and Maps," American Antiquarian Society Proceedings 65 (1955) 161–212.
[e. p. willging]