IN LIMESTONE COUNTRY by Scott Russell...

IN LIMESTONE COUNTRY by Scott Russell Sanders (Beacon: $10.95). One small area of southern Indiana supplies most of the premier building stone in America: Such diverse structures as the Lincoln Memorial, the Empire State Building, the Pentagon and San Francisco City Hall all are faced in Indiana limestone. Shifts in architectural styles and building materials have hit the region hard, and in this friendly journal, the author roams the Indiana hills, visiting abandoned quarries and talking to the miners, cutters and sculptors who shaped the raw stone. Sanders’ fascination extends to the limestone itself, formed from the compressed shells of microscopic marine fossils. The humble chunk of rock he takes as a souvenir becomes a window into the prehistoric past: “Entire millennia of human labors are known to us solely through their stone leavings. The only common stuff that rivals it for durability is language, words laid down in books and scrolls like so many fossils. With a touch of mind, the fossil words spring to life; so might the stones, if we look at them aright.”