“We are all Stardust,” so writes author William Bryan Logan, quoting his friend Jim Morton. Logan additionally acknowledges Dean Morton for making that book possible when he invited Logan to become a writer-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Speaking of Dean Morton:
“He has been an example to me of work pursued tirelessly and with deep good cheer.”
– William Bryant Logan
That book, Dirt, the Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, is part theology, part philosophy and all science about our planet. He writes about stone, rocks, silt, sand, and clay in a way that makes you want to go into your backyard and look closer and smell it. Wind and water and billions of years write the history of our dirt. Whether you are a quarryman, farmer, or clay artist, you will want to read his inspiring thoughts. The “Stardust” alludes to the fact that everything on earth, including us, is from stardust.
From his office on the triforium level, to his friendship with Jim and Pamela Morton he spent the better part of a decade at the Cathedral. One of the essays is about the foundations of cathedrals. Therefore it provides a great deal of insight into the beginnings of the construction of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Almost everyone likes to look at the vaulted spaces and the arches and buttresses. They all admire the windows, stonework and the carvings. Admiration is rarely a word that is used regarding the foundations.
Dig it and be Done
It looked like a simple matter, writes Logan. Beneath the shallow overburden of loose soil should have been solid metamorphic stone. Excavation continued to reveal twisted and fractured schist. The church’s elders were more than concerned. They were supposed to be building a grand cathedral, not digging an endless hole. Then, the industrialist J.P. Morgan wrote a blank check. He said “Dig it and be done.” That check covered what in today’s dollars would be $20 million.
Across the street, St. Luke’s Hospital began its foundation dig at the same time as the Cathedral. The Hospital was built and dedicated before the Cathedral’s foundation was done. The dig went down 72 feet in spots before bedrock was found. Finding that bedrock was good because as Logan indicates the unfinished Cathedral weighs in at 253,000 tons. “The weightiest Gothic undertaking ever”.
Stardust to Dirt Author
William Bryant Logan is the author of Sprout Lands, Oak, Air and Dirt, the last of which was made into an award-winning documentary. He is on the faculty of the New York Botanical Garden as well as a regular garden writer for the New York Times. His informative web site can be found here
- Special thanks to the artist and gallery owner Betsy Williams for leading us to this impressive book. Her site is here.