James LaRue has been a public library director for many years, as well as a weekly newspaper columnist and cable TV host. From January 2016 to November 2018, he was director of the Freedom to Read Foundation, and the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. He has written, spoken, and consulted extensively on intellectual freedom issues, leadership and organizational development, community engagement, and the future of libraries. He lives in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

SunLit: Tell us this book’s backstory. What inspired you to write it? Where did the story/theme originate? 

James LaRue: As noted in my introduction of the book, I dealt with some 250 challenges as director of the Douglas County Libraries (1990-2014), another thousand or so when I was director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) (January 2016-November 2018), and have been dealing with another dozen or so in a new round of challenges as director of the Garfield County Libraries (May 2022 to the present). Censorship attempts have long been with us. But the past few years have seen the strongest surge in the 40 years or so that the OIF has been tracking them. And I think it portends a lurch toward authoritarianism. Censorship thrives in silence; so let’s talk about it.

SunLit: Place this excerpt in context. How does it fit into the book as a whole? Why did you select it? 

LaRue: Librarians mostly opine to other librarians. I jumped at the chance to talk to the general public about these issues. I was a weekly newspaper columnist for some 25 years, and wanted to make the topic approachable.

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Each week, The Colorado Sun and Colorado Humanities & Center For The Book feature an excerpt from a Colorado book and an interview with the author. Explore the SunLit archives at coloradosun.com/sunlit.

So I begin with a summary of my work experience, but then tell what I hope is a relatable story about one of the reasons people try to restrict access to things: personal prejudice, often as the result of childhood trauma (though the trauma I recount is pretty minor). The rest of the book focuses on other reasons: parental panic, demographic panic, and the will to power.

SunLit: Tell us about creating this book. What influences and/or experiences informed the project before you sat down to write? 

LaRue: Because I’ve dealt with so many more challenges than most librarians, because I’ve been thinking and writing about it for decades, I see the issue from many angles. For the first three reasons for challenges (personal prejudice, parental panic, demographic panic), it’s possible to find a compassionate interpretation and response. But that last one — the will to power — has huge implications, and requires something more than empathy. Before writing the book, I re-read Eric Hoffer’s “The True Believer” (1951), whose penetrating insights about how the world lurched into World War II seemed eerily exact about what’s going on today.

SunLit: What did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding of your craft and/or the subject matter? 

LaRue: I came to see the rise of censorship as part of a larger shift in thinking about the public sector generally, and about the infrastructure of democracy (a free press, libraries, trustworthy elections, a robust education system) in particular. There is both a political and psychological profile for those who seek to suppress ideas. Right now, the people who fit that profile are ascendent, even though they are also a distinct minority.

SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing this book? 

LaRue: The older I get the more I want to keep fiddling with each phrase till I get it right. I regret that there are many passages that are just almost right. The second biggest challenge was incorporating so many current examples of censorship.

SunLit: What’s the most important thing — a theme, lesson, emotion or realization — that readers should take from this book? 

LaRue: Censorship is an authoritarian tool, the attempt to replace individual liberty with partisan coercion. But we get the society we deserve; if we want rule of law, institutions of integrity and influence, then we have to invest in and defend them.

SunLit: Walk us through your writing process: Where and how do you write? 

LaRue: I write at home, mostly in the morning, mostly using an “outliner” — a sort of word processor optimized to edit not just words, but the larger structure of a piece. Some authors love having written; I actually enjoy writing, that interplay of arranging ideas and looking for striking imagery, phrasing, and insight. 

SunLit: Why do people censor? What motivates them? 

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LaRue: Others have written about the fear of the majority becoming the minority (that demographic panic mentioned above). I write about parents who panic at two predictable moments of life transition: the end of infancy and the beginning of childhood (ages 4-6), and the end of childhood and the beginning of adulthood (ages 14-16). Often parents just want their babies back, and imagine that preserving their “innocence” (meaning ignorance of the world) can extend their childhood indefinitely. But ignorance serves predators, not their prey.

SunLit: Tell us about your next project. 

LaRue: I’m finding great satisfaction and challenge in the tasks of public administration in this time. I’m trying to build an institution, the rural public library, that serves its community and staff in a way that earns trust and respect. While there are certainly issues to be dealt with along the way, there are also many rewards.

 A few more quick questions

SunLit: Which do you enjoy more as you work on a book – writing or editing? 

LaRue: Both, but for different reasons. Writing is about capturing the broad sweep of ideas, which can be exhilarating. Editing is that pleasure that comes from polishing until it’s smooth.

SunLit: What’s the first piece of writing – at any age – that you remember being proud of? 

LaRue: I submitted a poem to the New Yorker when I was 13. I got the gentlest possible rejection, with a handwritten, “We’d like to see more.” But then I shifted, for years, to writing haiku. Some of them were pretty good!

SunLit: What three writers, from any era, would you invite over for a great discussion about literature and writing? 

LaRue: Lao-tzu, for his deceptive simplicity. Thomas Wolfe (of “Look Homeward Angel” fame) for the ability to sustain a compelling and immersive narrative. Connie Willis, for her always tightly constructed and intriguing plots (she’s also a very wide reader).

SunLit: Do you have a favorite quote about writing? 

LaRue: A haiku master said to his student of 30 years, then in his 50s: “He begins to be capable of serious work.” Or Nietzsche: “One is fully mature when he recaptures the seriousness of a child at play.”

SunLit: What does the current collection of books on your home shelves tell visitors about you? 

LaRue: Lately, almost all my books are online, because moving a couple tons of print got to be so expensive. What remains on display mostly reflects my interest in Eastern philosophy and poetry.

SunLit: Soundtrack or silence? What’s the audio background that helps you write? 

LaRue: Silence. But it’s nice when it rains.

SunLit: What music do you listen to for sheer enjoyment?

LaRue: Ragtime.

SunLit: What event, and at what age, convinced you that you wanted to be a writer?  

LaRue: Really, just the experience of getting lost in so many books, especially science fiction. From about age 12, I began maintaining a series of notebooks jotting down plots, characters, opening lines, aphorisms.

SunLit: Greatest writing fear? 

LaRue: I won’t have anything worthwhile to say! Or Iean into that flow — and there’s nothing.

SunLit: Greatest writing satisfaction? 

LaRue: When my writing both makes someone laugh out loud — then get caught up in thinking about it.

This byline is used for articles and guides written collaboratively by The Colorado Sun reporters, editors and producers.