First Publication of "The Lamp of Psyche"

The short story “The Lamp of Psyche” was written by Edith Wharton in 1893. According to a manuscript, the first version of Wharton’s story was written with a first-person narrator; however, she changed the narrator to a third-person narrator. (White 1)

In October 1895, Wharton’s short story “The Lamp of Psyche” appeared for the first time in Scribner’s Magazine, which was published monthly, in Volume 0018 Issue 4. The editor of the magazine, Edward Burlingame, had already accepted two other short stories by Edith Wharton before “The Lamp of Psyche”. After Edward Burlingame accepted Wharton’s short story, he suggested that Wharton could do a whole collection of short stories for the Scribner’s Magazine. After five years, the project was still not completed and Wharton told Burlingame that she would never finish it, due to the fact that she intended to become a professional writer.

Edith Wharton suffered a mental and physical breakdown, but her treatment, starting to write again, was a success. However, she told Burlingame that she did not want to complete her collection for him, but Burlingame did not want to give up on “The Lamp of Psyche” and Wharton revised it. Yet, the revised version was never published. (Somers 79-80)

October 1895 Issue of the Scribner’s Magazine