The Sazerac Lying Club

The Sazerac Lying Club. . , At the heart of every great legend there is a lie, an exaggeration, a falsehood, a distortion, a deception, a myth, or an untruth. Every skilled story teller is a weaver of little lies that form a tale that is worth retelling. Great writers like Dan De Quille understood this and developed a humorous, but often not factual, style of writing that was authentic to Nevada., In 1873, Fred H. Hart, an excellent practitioner of the Western journalistic tradition of the humorous literary hoax, was employed as editor of the "Reese River Reveille," published in Austin, Nevada. Hart described Austin as, "a quiet place, in which anything of a startling nature in the line of news seldom transpires." This left Hart with a lack of material to fill the paper., Hart soon found a bounty of "stories" at The Sazerac, a local watering hole located on Main Street. The local miners, ranchers, and stage drivers would gather to tell of their adventures with standard exaggerations. Hart began recording these tales and The Sazerac Lying Club was born, with its members wearing little hatchets on their lapels and seeking the title of "Monumental Liar of America.", In 1878, Hart published The Sazerac Lying Club. The book recorded the fictional articles reporting on the organization's fabricated proceeding. It became an instant classic and inspired three printings in its first year., Dedicated September 26, 2020 (6025) , Lucinda Jane Saunders Chapter #1881 , Jesse Lee Reno Outpost #1422 , Snowshoe Thompson Chapter #1827 , Samuel L. Clemens Chapter #1856 , of the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus