Given his propensity for publishing tales fairly soon after completion, James probably wrote Sir Edmund Orme in 1891, perhaps even on commission for Black and white’s Christmas number – ghost stories were a customary inclusion in such issues. However, the surviving notebook entry dates from some 12 years earlier, so we cannot be certain. The tale was reprinted with some changes in James’s next book collection of short stories and then some fifteen years later in a further revised version made for the New York edition, as detailed on my bibliography page. Full details of all subsequent publications known to me containing the tale can be found on the relevant page of my index to Henry James’s tales in collections.

The text for the edition on this website is taken from the first UK book edition in The lesson of the master (1892), subject to changes required by the editor’s standard editorial method.

The following table shows the emendations which have been made in preparing this text from the source. Although suggested by careful reading of the mixed American and British spelling of the 1892 edition (all copies of which were printed in America), these changes have been confirmed by reference to the earlier magazine and later New York edition texts.

location in 1892
Macmillan edition 		original text correction
page 273, line 19 practice practise
page 275, line 3 story storey
page 286, line 10 impression, impression;
page 294, line 20 <indenting space>“It’s “It’s
page 296, line 7 practicing practising

The script used in preparing the downloadable ASCII version of this text counted 11,643 words in it.

Because of the production method the text has been proof-read twice, but only by this editor, so it is possible that an error has slipped through both times – offers of proofing assistance will be gratefully received by the editor.