‘Magic in Stone’ author to share from book spotlighting Sylacauga marble
The University of West Alabama’s Julia Tutwiler Library will host a book talk by author Ruth Beaumont Cook at the library on Tuesday, March 15, from 2-4 p.m. The public is invited to attend this free event. Refreshments will be served, and Ms. Cook will be signing copies for sale.
The author will give a talk on her book, Magic in Stone. The book, published by NewSouth Books, discusses Sylacauga — Alabama’s “Marble City” — and its abundant natural resource that nurtures both its economy and its cultural heritage. Thirty-five miles long, at least four hundred feet deep, and more than a mile wide, the Sylacauga Marble Belt yields crystalline white marble frequently compared to the Parian marble treasured by Greek sculptors and the Italian Carrara marble often chosen by Michelangelo. Artisans have quarried Sylacauga marble for tombstones since the early 1800s, and architects prized it for years as dimension stone for buildings like the United States Supreme Court.
In the early 1900s, Giuseppe Moretti and Gutzon Borglum both chose this marble for magnificent sculptures. When granite, better able to withstand industrial pollution, overtook marble as the preferred architectural stone in the 1930s, Sylacauga’s quarry owners shifted their focus to the production of ground calcium carbonate (GCC), a fundamental ingredient in manufactured products from toothpaste, foodstuffs, and disposable diapers to paints, caulks, and sealants.
Many cringe at the idea of blasting and grinding marble into fine powder, but GCC is a vital factor in the local economy. Thankfully, the Magic of Marble Festival, first held in 2009, has revitalized interest in the artistic value of Sylacauga marble, inspiring sculptors from across the United States and masters from Italy to apply their skills to cream-white blocks of this beautiful stone and share their creativity with thousands of residents and visitors each year. This is the story of quarry pioneers, investors, artists, and artisans. It is also the story of their families, who fondly remember their lives along the edge of “the hole” that provided for them.
Ruth Beaumont Cook is a graduate of The Ohio State University. She has lived in the Birmingham area since 1970 and is the author of three books of narrative non-fiction history — North Across the River (1999), Guests Behind the Barbed Wire (2007), and Magic in Stone (2019). Her second book, about the German POW camp in Aliceville during WWII, was awarded a bronze medal for outstanding historical writing by the Independent Publishers Group in 2008.
She is the author of numerous articles on history, business, and the arts for Birmingham magazine, Alabama Heritage, and other regional and national publications. Her Facebook page, Cook’s Book Nook, currently features virtual tours of outstanding sculpture collection pieces at the B. B. Comer Memorial Library in Sylacauga. She also maintains a regular blog, Road Trips, which highlights off-the-beaten-path adventures around Alabama. In addition to her work as an author and historian, Ruth provides outsource editing services and serves as a volunteer coordinator for the First Light women’s shelter in Birmingham.