Someone saw my recently-published article, “‘Two truths and a lie’ as a class-participation activity,” and wanted to know what is the origin of that popular game.
I have no idea when the game first appeared, who invented it, or what were its precursors. I don’t remember it being around when I was a kid, so at the very least I think its popularity has increased in recent decades, but I’d be interested in the full story.
Can anyone help?
Google Book Ngram Viewer puts its first recorded use of the term in 1981: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=two+truths+and+a+lie&year_start=1900&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=0
Google Books, meanwhile, finds it (alongside rules etc.) in the book “When Kids Are Apathetic” purportedly dated to 1931: https://books.google.com/books?id=1gRneX9jyA4C&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22two+truths+and+a+lie%22
But I think this is probably a mistake of their OCR — all of the author’s other books date to the 70s, 80s, and 90s, there’s a copy on Amazon (https://smile.amazon.com/First-Aid-When-Kids-Are-Apathetic/dp/1555135110) with a swankier cover dated to 1991 (10y anniversary edition?), a ‘3’ looks a lot like an ‘8’, and contextually I’m pretty confident the author is this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Kesler, who google tells me was born in ’35.
Normally I’d suggest shooting him an email to ask if he invented it or knows who did, but unfortunately in 2018 it sounds like he suffered three sudden strokes, triggering sharp cognitive decline: https://www.facebook.com/tayloruniversity/posts/dear-friends-it-is-with-heavy-hearts-we-share-this-update-regarding-our-beloved-/10156683914403648/ (he may be still alive, though — couldn’t find an obituary). His daughter’s on LinkedIn and looks to still be working at [REDACTED for privacy], so you could maybe consider asking her if she remembers him inventing the game (she started university in ’81, so it might be he wrote down a game he played with her as a kid). But that might be impolite idk.
Nik:
Interesting! 1981 sounds plausible.
I was attempting to research the origins of this activity for a paper for graduate school. It led me to this page. Truly cannot find much!
A (perhaps) confirmatory data point re the 1980s. In June 1985, freshly armed with my BA, I entered a sales training program. “Two Truths and a Lie” formed the basis of one of our earliest exercises in effectively questioning (in sales we say qualifying) customers.
While writing a research paper for undergraduate work, the origins of “two truths, one lie” led me down a rabbit hole to this page. Hoping to figure it out too. Thanks!
In poetry this is anon – why can’t we use anon ?
I had never heard of this game and thought I invented it working with very troubled youth in Vancouver BC in 1980. It was in a Group home called Browndale Care Society it was based on an attachment model. All about building emotional connection — kids, staff to make it more interesting and challenging, we would advance to the next level: Three truths and a lie and no note-taking to help your memory! I have occasionally used in other settings. Later I introduced it to kids in St Vincent Hospital Adolescent unit for fun and connection.
I was surprised years later when it was being used in a training workshop I attended. They didn’t know its origin.
But I claim it still! SSH Blaine Wa
I recently read an advance copy of a cozy mystery set in 1930’s England. At a gathering one character insistend they play Two Truths and a Lie. Which made me wonder how old the game is.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/228023414-two-truths-and-a-murder
My husband and I are reading that Phyllida Bright novel right now and I went online to look up Two Truths and a Lie, because I was sure it did not exist in the 1930s. Looks like I’m right. Earliest it’s been talked about is the 1980s. Definitely an anachronism in the book, although they’re generally pretty good mysteries.
I know it is years after your question, but I think I have a lead on this. I believe this game was, if not entirely invented, refined and popularized by Goody Cable and the Sylvia Beach Hotel/Tables of Content restaurant in Newport, Oregon. You can find a number of articles about the Sylvia Beach Hotel, which opened in 1987, describing the game (I assumed just out of journalistic rigor, but realized it was increasingly seeming like the author expected the game to be new to the reader). Furthermore, The Sacramento Union (Sun, Oct 28, 1990, Page 28) fully credits Goody Cable and her “more eccentric friends” as concocting the game. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1237072264/?clipping_id=200440715&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjEyMzcwNzIyNjQsImlhdCI6MTc4MjkzMTI0MiwiZXhwIjoxNzgzMDE3NjQyfQ.BMJUTVptL6ks98G-CVt7wXaQ0VgnKA97iH7n_1z3o5emOLbOwfuLOll2TJv5fww1OGrrzGC4ewshoTToj7l5ng
The Sylvia Beach Hotel (a literary-themed hotel on the Oregon Coast) was a popular and much-reported-about vacation destination throughout the late eighties and nineties, and Two Truths and a Lie were a staple of the evening dinner format (which seated strangers together at large tables), so it seems plausible to me that between introducing the game to guests from all over, plus fairly widespread newspaper coverage reporting on the novelty of the game, the SBH tradition of playing it had a minimum effect of driving social contagion.
I actually intend on getting Cable on record as to whether she claims to have invented it, and report more about what I found in the archives on my Sylvia Beach Society newsletter, but I thought you’d appreciate the lead.
Michelle:
That’s interesting. The comment thread above points to some instances of the game from the 1980s, so I guess it wasn’t invented at the Sylvia Beach Hotel. But it could’ve been invented by Cable and her friends earlier. So whatever follow-up information you can get would be much appreciated!