New Worlds (magazine)
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New Worlds was a British science fiction magazine which was first published professionally in 1946. For 25 years it was widely considered the leading science fiction magazine in Britain, publishing 201 issues up to 1971.
Since 1971 the name of "New Worlds" has been kept alive with a series of original anthologies and a few magazine-like publications; these totalled 21 by 1997.
Throughout the 1950s New Worlds was similar in editorial policy and look to Astounding Science Fiction, publishing authors including Brian Aldiss and J G Ballard. It was edited until 1963 by John Carnell. At that point the magazine changed radically. Now edited by Michael Moorcock, it first was published as a cheaply-printed paperback, then a large format magazine. It quickly embraced the so called new wave of science fiction, publishing material that proved to be controversial. The material led to difficulties with distribution, and hastened the eventual demise of the magazine, despite financial assistance from the Arts Council.
In its second phase, authors published included Aldiss and Ballard, who also embraced the new wave enthusiastically, and much work by Moorcock (including some under the pseudonym James Colvin). A notable feature of the magazine were stories of Jerry Cornelius, created by Moorcock, but often written about by others. Other renowned authors include Norman Spinrad (whose novel Bug Jack Barron caused particular issues with distribution), Harlan Ellison, Philip José Farmer, M. John Harrison, Barrington J. Bayley and John Sladek; also an early story by Terry Pratchett and poetry by D. M. Thomas.
After the demise of the original magazine the title was continued as a paperback anthology series in the style of a magazine, complete with articles and illustrations, officially entitled New Worlds Quarterly although it seldom maintained a regular schedule. This series ran to ten issues, which are considered by some collectors as issues 202 through 211 of the magazine; subsequently the title was revived as an irregularly-published magazine and did indeed resume numeration from 212. Later the title once again switched to book format, this time in the form of trade paperbacks, with consecutive numbering continued on the title pages.
A US-based New Worlds magazine published five issues in 1960.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Complete index by author, through issue 201
- Article by Michael Moorcock on the decision to publish Bug Jack Barron and its consequences; with an insight into the artistic world surrounding New Worlds in 1967, height of the "second phase".
