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.
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In 1926, Hugo Gernsback launched Amazing Stories, the first science fiction (sf) magazine;[1] it was soon followed by other U.S. titles also specializing in sf, such as Astounding Stories and Wonder Stories.[2] These were distributed in the U.K. and British fan organizations began to appear. In 1936, Maurice K. Hanson, a Nuneaton fan, founded a fanzine called Novae Terrae (Latin for "new worlds") for the local branch of the Science Fiction League. Hanson subsequently moved to London and his fanzine became the official publication of the Science Fiction Association when it was founded in 1937.[3]
Arthur C. Clarke, John Carnell and William F. Temple all became involved in Novae Terrae's production. In 1939 Hanson gave up the editorship to Carnell, who retitled the fanzine New Worlds, and restarted the numbering at volume 1 number 1 with the first issue under Carnell's control dated March 1939. Carnell wanted to turn New Worlds into a professional magazine, and through W.J. Passingham, a writer, had begun discussions with a publisher named The Worlds Says Ltd.[3] In January 1940 Carnell was asked to put together three issues,[3] and Carnell and Passingham each put up £50 towards costs.[4] Carnell solicited material from British authors including John F. Burke, C.S. Youd, and David McIlwain, and acquired Robert A. Heinlein's "Lost Legion", but in March internal strife led to the collapse of The World Says.[3] Alfred Greig, the Canadian director, returned to Canada without repaying Carnell and Passingham, and no issues were ever printed.[4]
| Spring | Summer | Fall | Winter | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
| 1946 | 1/1 | 1/2 | ||||||||||
| 1947 | 1/3 | |||||||||||
| 1948 | ||||||||||||
| 1949 | 2/4 | 2/5 | ||||||||||
| 1950 | 2/6 | 3/7 | 3/8 | |||||||||
| 1951 | 3/9 | 3/10 | 4/11 | 12 | ||||||||
| 1952 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | ||||||
| 1953 | 19 | 20 | 21 | |||||||||
| 1954 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |||
| 1955 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 |
| 1956 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 |
| Issues of New Worlds from the beginning to 1956, showing volume/issue number. John Carnell was editor throughout this period. Four of the first five issues were dated only with the year; the exception was issue 3, which bore no date. Underlining indicates that the magazine was titled with the season (e.g. "Spring 1951") for that issue.[3][5] |
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Carnell joined the army in 1940, serving with the Royal Artillery, Combined Operations, and Naval Bombardment.[4] After he returned to civilian life in January 1946 he met writer Frank Edward Arnold, who had been working with Pendulum Publications on a new science fiction line. Arnold introduced Carnell to Stephen D. Frances, Pendulum's director.[4] Frances was a believer in the commercial possibilities of science fiction, and since Carnell still had the portfolio of stories he had put together in 1940, Pendulum soon agreed to make New Worlds into a professional magazine.[4][3] The first issue appeared in July 1946, though there was no date on the magazine. The initial print run was 15,000, but only 3,000 copies were sold—a very disappointing return. Carnell felt that part of the reason for the difference in sales was the cover artwork, which in his opinion was weak. He put together a new design, based on covers from two U.S. science fiction magazines, and gave it to artist Victor Caesari to complete. The resulting space scene was the cover for the second issue, which appeared in October 1946;[4] in combination with Pendulum's investment in a sales drive this led to much better sales, and the second issue sold out completely.[3] Pendulum rebound the remaining copies of the first issue with the second cover design,[4] and repriced them to 1/6 (7.5p); the first two issues had been priced at 2/-.[5] The new cover and price were much more popular and the repackaged first issue, like the second, soon sold out.[4]
One more issue appeared from Pendulum Publications, in October 1947, but shortly thereafter Pendulum went bankrupt, and New Worlds was without a publisher. However, starting in 1946, a group of sf fans had begun to meet regularly on Thursday nights at the White Horse pub on New Fetter Lane, near Fleet Street.[3][note 1] At one of these meetings it was suggested that the group form a company in order to revive New Worlds. Frank Cooper, one of the attendees, had recently retired from the RAF, and agreed to find out what would be necessary to start a new company.[6]
In May 1948 Carnell announced at a science fiction convention in London that plans were well underway, and that the company would be named Nova Publications Ltd.[3][note 2] Nova raised £600 in capital, and was launched in the spring of 1949. There were initially six directors: the chairman was John Wyndham, and the remaining board members were G. Ken Chapman, Frank Cooper, Walter Gillings, Eric C. Williams, and John Carnell.[6] A printer was found near Stoke Newington, where Frank Cooper was based, and the first issue (numbered 4, to follow on from the three Pendulum issues) appeared in June, with plans to move to regular quarterly publication,[6] and subsequently to a bimonthly schedule.[7] To keep costs down Nova decided to handle the distribution themselves; this was not easy but Cooper and his assistant, Les Flood, were sufficiently successful that in July the decision was taken to go ahead with the planned quarterly schedule. A fifth issue duly appeared in September, and the sixth issue the following spring, dated Spring 1950.[6]
In 1950, with New Worlds on a stable quarterly schedule, Nova Publications decided to launch a companion, Science Fantasy.[3] They chose Walter Gillings as the editor; but he was replaced by Carnell after two issues, partly because Nova could not afford to pay two editorial salaries,[8] and partly because of "fundamental differences of opinion".[7] At the end of 1951 New Worlds went bimonthly, and by the middle of the year had reached a circulation of 18,000. The price had been reduced to 1/6 with the third issue, but with paper costs rising Nova decided to look for a cheaper printer. The new printer, The Carlton Press, was supposed to take over production with the May 1953 issue (number 21), but the issue was late, and had to be dated June 1953 instead.[7] The issue was shoddily produced, which dismayed Nova's board; there were also printers' strikes, and this disruption caused further delays.[8][7] Nova discovered that in fact The Carlton Press was just an agent with no printing facilities; they farmed out work to other printers, but were only able to get their commissions executed when they paid off any prior debts to those printers. Issue 22 was repeatedly delayed; proofs appeared in August, and the issue itself was promised for November. Even this late schedule was not adhered to, and Carnell finally received a copy of the print run in January 1954. The copy was dated 1953 (with no month), and since this made it useless for distribution in 1954, Carnell refused to accept the print run.[9] While the dispute with the printers was going on, Carnell and Maurice Goldsmith, a journalist acquaintance of Carnell's, put together a small conference of well-known science fiction authors, including Arthur C. Clarke and John Wyndham. Goldsmith covered the conference for Illustrated, a weekly magazine, and the article caught the attention of Maclaren & Sons Ltd, a technical trade publisher interested in launching a new sf magazine. Carnell turned down the offer because of his loyalty to Nova Publications, but subsequent discussions ultimately led to Maclaren taking control of Nova Publications, with a commitment to produce New Worlds on a monthly basis and Science Fantasy on a bimonthly schedule. By January 1954, when The Carlton Press delivered the incorrectly dated issue 22, the acquisition by Maclaren was complete, and Maclaren's legal department was helpful in resolving the dispute. The printing press who had actually printed the issue were not paid by The Carlton Press, so an injunction was obtained that sequestered the issues to avoid them being sold to recover the printing costs. Carnell retained the copy he had been sent in January, and it is thought that this is the only copy that exists of The Carlton Press's version of this issue, as the remainder of the printing run was destroyed at the conclusion of the court case. The cover painting, by Gerard Quinn, was subsequently used on issue 13 of Science Fantasy, and all the stories and editorial material eventually appeared in later issues of New Worlds over the next year.[9]
The financial support that Maclaren provided meant that once issue 22 finally appeared in April 1954, it was the start of a regular monthly schedule that lasted until 1964 with just one hiccup: a printing dispute in 1959 delayed the August issue; it was ultimately combined with the September issue.[3] Despite this stability, New Worlds's circulation began to decline in the early 1960s. Nova Publications had launched a third magazine, Science Fiction Adventures, in 1958, but both it and Science Fantasy were also losing readers, and in May 1963 Science Fiction Adventures was cancelled.[3][10] In September of that year Nova's board decided to close down both New Worlds and Science Fantasy,[3] and in preparation for the change Carnell signed a contract in December 1963 to edit an original anthology series, New Writings in SF, for publisher Dennis Dobson.[11]
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 |
| 1958 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 |
| 1959 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | |
| 1960 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100 | 101 |
| 1961 | 102 | 103 | 104 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108 | 109 | 110 | 111 | 112 | 113 |
| 1962 | 114 | 115 | 116 | 117 | 118 | 119 | 120 | 121 | 122 | 123 | 124 | 125 |
| 1963 | 126 | 127 | 128 | 129 | 130 | 131 | 132 | 133 | 134 | 135 | 136 | 137 |
| 1964 | 138 | 139 | 140 | 141 | 142 | 143 | 144 | 145 | ||||
| 1965 | 146 | 147 | 148 | 149 | 150 | 151 | 152 | 153 | 154 | 155 | 156 | 157 |
| 1966 | 158 | 159 | 160 | 161 | 162 | 163 | 164 | 165 | 166 | 167 | 168 | 169 |
| 1967 | 170 | 171 | 172 | 173 | 174 | 175 | 176 | 177 | 178 | |||
| Issues of New Worlds from 1957 to 1967, showing issue number. The colors identify the editors for each issue:[3][5] John Carnell Mike Moorcock |
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The magazines were unexpectedly saved by David Warburton of Roberts & Vinter, a London publishing house. The printer who had been printing both New Worlds and Science Fantasy happened to meet Warburton in a pub, and mentioned that he was looking for additional work to fill the gaps in his schedule left by the demise of the magazines. Roberts & Vinter were having difficulty getting good distribution for their existing titles, which were violent thrillers, and were interested in acquiring more respectable titles that would help them penetrate the British distribution network, which was heavily dependent on W.H. Smith and John Menzies, the two main British newsagent chains. Warburton's partner, Godfrey Gold, ran a company that was connected to Roberts & Vinter and published pin-up magazines; like Warburton, Gold needed to improve his ability to distribute his titles.[3][11]
When Michael Moorcock, who by this time had begun selling stories to Carnell, heard of the impending demise of the magazines, he wrote a letter that appeared in issue 141 lamenting the loss to the British science fiction field of both the magazines and Carnell himself. Carnell did not want to continue to edit the magazines in addition to New Writings in SF, and recommended Moorcock to Warburton. Kyril Bonfiglioli, an Oxford art dealer who was a friend of Brian Aldiss, also expressed an interest. Warburton gave Moorcock the choice of which magazine to edit; Moorcock chose New Worlds, and Bonfiglioli became the new editor of Science Fantasy.[11] Moorcock wanted to switch to a large format, and showed Warburton a dummy issue he had made up, but Warburton insisted on a paperback format in order to fit in with the other titles they were producing, though he agreed to revisit the format in the future if sales improved.[12] The first issue under Moorcock's control was number 142, dated May/June 1964. The schedule was initially bimonthly, but at the start of 1965 it returned to a stable monthly schedule.[3]
In July 1966 Roberts & Vinter's distributor, Thorpe & Porter, went bankrupt while owing Roberts & Vinter a substantial sum. The resulting financial pressure led Roberts & Vinter to decide to focus on their more profitable magazines, and they made plans to close down both Science Fantasy and New Worlds.[3] After hearing of these plans, Moorcock and Warburton began to consider forming a separate company to continue publishing New Worlds, and Brian Aldiss contacted well-known literary figures such as J.B. Priestley, Kingsley Amis, Marghanita Laski, and Angus Wilson, to gain support for an application for a grant from the British Arts Council in late 1966. In early January 1967 Aldiss discovered that the grant application would be successful, and that New Worlds would be awarded £150 per issue, though in the event the formal grant certification was delayed until at least May.[3][13][14][note 3] The grant was enough to enable the magazine to continue, though it would not cover all costs.[15] A publisher still needed to be found, and both Fontana and Panther Books expressed an interest, but the promise of the money and the prestige of an Arts Council grant convinced Warburton to stay involved personally.[14][15] While these negotiations were going on, two more issues were assembled from backfile material and donated stories.[15] Roberts & Vinter had ceased to exist by this time, so a sister company, Gold Star Publications, became the publisher for both these issues, with Warburton and Aldiss providing Gold Star with personal financial guarantees.[16][note 4] These two issues appeared in March and April 1967, but the latter was mistakenly also dated March in the indicia. Science Fantasy was not continued but was merged with New Worlds as of the first Gold Star issue, though nothing of SF Impulse's design or content was visible in New Worlds.[16]
| Spring | Summer | Fall | Winter | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
| 1968 | 179 | 180 | 181 | 182 | 183 | 184 | 185 | |||||
| 1969 | 186 | 187 | 188 | 189 | 190 | 191 | 192 | 193 | 194 | 195 | 196 | |
| 1970 | 197 | 198 | 199 | 200 | ||||||||
| 1971 | 201 | #1 | #2 | |||||||||
| 1972 | #3 | #4 | ||||||||||
| 1973 | #5 | #6 | ||||||||||
| 1974 | #7 | |||||||||||
| 1975 | #8 | #9 | ||||||||||
| 1976 | #10 | |||||||||||
| 1977 | ||||||||||||
| 1978 | 212 | 213 | 214 | |||||||||
| 1979 | 215 | 216 | ||||||||||
| Issues of New Worlds from 1968 to 1979, showing issue number. From 1971 to 1976 New Worlds was a paperback anthology titled New Worlds Quarterly, numbered from 1 to 10. Underlining indicates that the magazine was titled with the season (e.g. "Spring 1978") for that issue. The colors identify the editors for each issue:[3][17][5] Mike Moorcock Langdon Jones Charles Platt |
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The partnership Warburton and Moorcock formed to continue New Worlds was named Magnelist Publications.[13] Moorcock and Warburton reviewed the dummy issue Moorcock had put together when he first became editor, and persuaded Warburton to switch to the larger format.[14][15] The first issue from Magnelist appeared in July 1967, beginning a regular monthly schedule. Moorcock remained as editor with Langdon Jones as his assistant, and Charles Platt became the layout designer.[3][13] Poor sales led Warburton to cease his involvement after the November issue, but the magazine was again saved, this time by Sylvester Stein of Stonehart Publications.[15][note 5]
Delays led to a skipped month, with the December 1967 and January 1968 issues being combined into one, but a monthly schedule returned thereafter.[18] The March 1968 issue contained the third instalment of Norman Spinrad's novel Bug Jack Barron, which included some fairly explicit sex scenes. A Member of Parliament complained in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom that the Arts Council was "sponsoring filth";[3][note 6] and soon W.H. Smith and John Menzies, the two main retail outlets for magazines in the UK, withdrew the magazine from sale. The complaints came at the time when the Arts Council was considering renewing the grant for another year, and it appeared for a while that New Worlds would have to cease publication, but eventually the grant was renewed. Some private donations also came in, and with money from advertising, and a substantial contribution from Moorcock himself, the magazine was able to survive. The loss of revenue caused by the withdrawal from sale of the March 1968 issue was exacerbated by a temporary ban on the magazine in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia, and by John Menzies' decision to refuse to stock New Worlds after that point. W.H. Smith left it up to their individual branch managers to decide whether to carry it.[3][note 7] Stonehart were unhappy with the way things were going, and would not pay the printers, who withheld the printed copies to exact payment. The Arts Council money was supposed to go to contributors since Moorcock could no longer afford to pay them, but a disagreement sprang up over the grant and Stonehart refused to pay the contributors. Some negative coverage appeared in the press as a consequence of the distribution ban. The grant was eventually renewed but by late that year Stein had had enough, and Stonehart ceased their involvement with New Worlds after the July 1968 issue.[14]
Without reliable distribution at the leading newsagents, New Worlds had to rely on subscriptions and donations. The magazine was not profitable, and since Moorcock had not formed a company to publish it, he was personally responsible for its costs. To bring in cash he had been writing fantasy novels at a very rapid rate since early 1968, and from early 1969 the editorial work was given to various others, primarily Charles Platt and Langdon Jones.[15][3] A regular monthly schedule was adhered to from January until July 1969, at which point came another financial blow when it was discovered that half of the print run of 20,000 was being held back by the distributors.[19][15] Moorcock attempted to regroup by reducing the number of pages in each issue, and because he was again forced to write as much as he could to earn enough to pay New Worlds's bills, he turned over almost all editorial duties to Charles Platt, though others involved with the magazine also took turns at the editorial work over the next few issues.[15][3] Moorcock was £3,000 in debt, and in combination with the Arts Council's subsequent decision not to renew their grant he found himself with no option but to cease publication. The April 1970 issue, the 200th overall, was the last issue that went out to the distributors; one more issue was prepared and mailed to subscribers in March of the following year.[3]
When Moorcock realized that the magazine would have to fold, he made arrangements with Sphere Books to continue New Worlds as a quarterly paperback anthology series. Eight issues appeared from Sphere, though the quarterly schedule was not adhered to after the fourth issue; the eighth issue appeared in 1975.[3] Six of the issues were reprinted in the US. The early issues did well financially, with about 25,000 copies sold, not counting US sales.[20] Moorcock turned over the editorship to Charles Platt with the sixth volume, and to Hilary Bailey thereafter, in order to have more time to devote to his own writing: he also commented that by this time "I no longer had my editorial touch (I couldn't read sf at all)".[15] Sphere cancelled the series after two more issues; it was briefly taken over by Corgi Books, but sales were weak and Corgi dropped the series with New Worlds 10 in 1976,[3] though according to Moorcock he and Bailey decided to end the series when they got into disagreements with Corgi.[15] In the US Berkley Books published volumes 1 through 4, and when they dropped the series Platt, who was a consulting editor at Avon Books, reprinted two further volumes, number 6 and 7 of the UK series.[20]
In 1978 the magazine was revived by Moorcock again, this time in a fanzine format. Four more issues appeared, professionally printed and with various editors, between Spring 1978 and September 1979.[3][21] There followed a long gap until 1991, when New Worlds again reappeared as a paperback anthology series, this time edited by David S. Garnett. Four volumes appeared between 1991 and 1994, published by Victor Gollancz.[22] Moorcock edited a fiftieth anniversay issue in 1996, and Garnett subsequently edited one more issue of the anthology. Together with the earlier fanzine, magazine and anthology versions, these took the issue numbering from 212 through to 222. As of 2011 a further relaunch is planned as a simultaneous print and online magazine, to be titled Michael Moorcock's New Worlds.[21]
The lead story of the first issue of New Worlds was Maurice Hugi's "The Mill of the Gods". John Russell Fearn contributed four stories, under his own name and three pseudonyms, and William Temple provided "The Three Pylons", a fantasy which turned out to be the most popular story in the issue.[5][3] The second issue contained John Wyndham's "The Living Lies", under his "John Beynon" alias; the story, about hostility and bigotry shown by settlers on Venus to the Venusian natives, was reprinted in Other Worlds (magazine) in 1950.[23] The third issue contained "Inheritance", an early story by Arthur C. Clarke that later appeared in Astounding Science Fiction.[24]
The acquisition of Nova Publications by Maclaren in 1954 gave New Worlds the stability to establish itself as a leading magazine. Sf historian Mike Ashley describes the period from 1954 to 1960 as a "Golden Age" for New Worlds. Carnell bought J.G. Ballard's first sale, "Escapement", which appeared in the December 1956 New Worlds; Ballard would go on to become a significant figure in the genre in the 1960s.[25] Ballard was grateful to Carnell for the support he provided Ballard in the late 1950s. Much of Ballard's work appeared in New Worlds and Science Fantasy, and Ballard later recalled that Carnell "recognized what I was on about from a very early stage and he encouraged me to go on writing in my own way."[26] Carnell also published much of Brian Aldiss's early work in both Science Fantasy and New Worlds. John Brunner, later to become one of the most successful British science fiction writers, appeared regularly in the Nova magazines, starting with "Visitors' Book" in the April 1955 New Worlds. James White began publishing with "Assisted Passage" in the January 1953 New Worlds, and in 1957 began his popular Sector General series, about a hospital for aliens, with "Sector General" in the November 1957 issue.[25] John Wyndham, who was already well-known outside the genre for works such as The Day of the Triffids,[27] began a series about the Troons, a space-going family, with "For All the Night" in the April 1958 issue.[28] Arthur C. Clarke, another very successful British sf writer of the period, wrote relatively few short stories for the British market, but did publish "Who's There" in the November 1958 New Worlds.[28] Colin Kapp began his popular "Unorthodox Engineers" series with "The Railways up on Cannis", in October 1959.[29] Other less well-known writers who were prolific during the late 1950s included J.T. McIntosh, Kenneth Bulmer, and E.C. Tubb.[25]
Among the best artists of this period were Brian Lewis, Gordon Hutchings, and Gerard Quinn, whose art is regarded by Ashley as comparable in style to Virgil Finlay's work.[30] However, in 1957 Carnell stopped using interior art, saying that "art work in the digest-size magazines is as out-of-date as a coal fire".[31]
In the early 1960s New Worlds's quality began to drop somewhat, in the opinion of Mike Ashley. It still ran popular series such as White's Sector General stories, and printed some well-received stories such as Harry Harrison's "The Streets of Ashkelon", about a clash between an atheist (the protagonist) and a priest, on another planet. Because of the subject matter, it took six years for Harrison to find an editor willing to accept the story; when Aldiss bought it for an anthology, Carnell agreed to print it in New Worlds, where it appeared in September 1962.[32] J.G. Ballard continued to publish in New Worlds, but was now sending his more conventional stories to the US magazines, and submitting his more experimental pieces to Carnell. Examples from 1961 to 1964 include "The Overloaded Man", "The Subliminal Man", "End-Game", and "The Terminal Beach", with themes of psychological stress, and changes to the nature of perception and of reality.[32]
When Roberts & Vinter made the decision to close down New Worlds in 1963, Moorcock and Ballard considered publishing a new magazine that would be willing, as Carnell had been, to publish experimental material. Moorcock assembled a dummy issue, and later described his intentions: "It would be on art paper, to take good quality illustrations; it would be the size of, say, Playboy so that it would get good display space on the news-stands; it would specialise in experimental work by writers like Burroughs and Paolozzi, but it would be 'popular', it would seek to publicise such experimenters; it would publish all those writers who had become demoralised by a lack of sympathetic publishers and by baffled critics; it would attempt a cross-fertilization of popular sf, science and the work of the literary and artistic avant garde."[33] Moorcock also wrote a letter to Carnell setting out his thoughts on what science fiction needed: "Editors who are willing to take a risk on a story and run it even though this may bring criticism on their heads."[34] The letter was published in the final Nova Publications issue, which also carried the announcement that Moorcock would be taking over from Carnell as editor of New Worlds,[35] though Moorcock had been unaware he would be considered for the post when he wrote his letter.[32]
Moorcock's first issue, dated May/June 1964, bore a cover by James Cawthorn illustrating the first instalment of Ballard's novella "Equinox"; Ballard also contributed a book review of William Burroughs' Dead Fingers Talk,[11] and stories by Brian Aldiss, Barrington Bayley, and John Brunner completed the issue.[5] Moorcock's editorial included a quote from a radio interview with William Burroughs to the effect "If writers are to describe the advanced techniques of the Space Age, they must invent writing techniques equally advanced in order properly to deal with them."[36] Within the first few issues, Moorcock printed stories intended to demonstrate his editorial goals. The most controversial of these was Langdon Jones' "I Remember, Anita ...", which appeared in the September/October 1964 issue; the story contained sex scenes that led to arguments in the magazine's letter column,[37] and some regular subscribers abandoned the magazines, though overall circulation increased.[12]
Moorcock contributed a substantial amount of material, under his own name and under pseudonyms such as James Colvin;[5] some of these stories were fairly traditional, but contributions such as the Jerry Cornelius stories, which began with "Preliminary Data" in the August 1965 issue, were much more experimental.[37] He also printed his novella "Behold the Man" in the September 1966 issue; the story, about a time traveler who returns to the time of Christ, won him a Nebula Award the following year. Ballard also began to write some of his most controversial stories, including "You: Coma: Marilyn Monroe" in the June 1966 issue, and "The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race", in March 1967; both had been previously published in Ambit, a literary magazine, in 1966.[37]
Many writers now found New Worlds to be a market in which they could publish experimental material; Charles Platt, David I. Masson, and Barrington Bayley were among the British writers in this group; and Moorcock also attracted work from US writers such as John Sladek, Roger Zelazny and Thomas M. Disch.[38][37] Zelazny's contributions included "For a Breath I Tarry" in March 1966; and Disch published several short stories and the novel Echo Round His Bones, which was serialized starting in the December 1966 and January 1967 issues. Disch commented afterwards that he had been unable to find a publisher for the novel in the US.[37] In the mid-1960s, the term "New Wave" began to be applied to the more experimental work that Moorcock was publishing, and New Worlds was soon regarded as the leading publication in the New Wave movement.[39][37]
In addition to the experimental material, Moorcock attempted to keep the existing readership happy by publishing more traditional science fiction; in the words of sf historian Colin Greenland, he "changed the contents of the magazine much more slowly than he pretended to".[40] He published Vernor Vinge's first story, "Apartness", in June 1965, and bought material from Bob Shaw, and early stories by Terry Pratchett. In March 1965 he printed Arthur C. Clarke's "Sunjammer".[37]
When Moorcock took over publication of New Worlds from Roberts & Vinter he changed the format from digest to a larger size with good quality paper that allowed better use of artwork. The first issue in this format, July 1967, contained part one of Disch's Camp Concentration, a novel which Disch had been unable to sell in the U.S. because of the explicitness of the language used by the protagonist. Disch afterwards recalled that some of the experimental language in the book was written in the knowledge that New Worlds was available as a market for unconventional fiction. Other new writers who appeared in the magazine include M. John Harrison and Robert Holdstock, both of whom appeared in the November 1968 issue. Samuel R. Delany appeared in the December 1968 issue with "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones", and Harlan Ellison's "A Boy and His Dog" was printed in April 1969; Ellison won a Nebula Award, and Delany both a Nebula and a Hugo, though it was not until the stories were reprinted in book form that they were widely noticed.[13]
In a 1967 interview, Ballard described modern U.S. sf as extrovert and optimistic, and contrasted it with "the new science fiction, that other people apart from myself are now beginning to write", which he saw as "introverted, possibly pessimistic rather than optimistic, much less certain of its own territory."[20] The July 1967 issue of New Worlds contained Pamela Zoline's first story, "The Heat Death of the Universe",[13] which used entropy, a frequent theme in New Worlds, as a metaphor.[20] "Inner space", a term originally coined by J.B. Priestley, was also used to describe the focus of the stories Moorcock printed, in contrast to traditional science fiction's focus on outer space.[20]
In the August 1969 issue, Platt asserted that "New Worlds is not a science-fiction magazine". Ashley comments that by this time, the sf world was no longer interested in it, and that it was in fact "a magazine of artistic and scientific comment and experiment, not too far removed from a literary review, but more avant-garde".[13]
With the switch to anthology format, some of the more experimental material disappeared. In his editorials, Moorcock made it clear that he did not want to exclude traditional sf stories; he wanted to eliminate the genre boundaries completely, and have science fiction treated as part of the mainstream of fiction. For marketing reasons, however, the quarterlies were labelled as science fiction since Sphere knew that would increase sales. The stories printed in the anthologies were generally downbeat. Some of the material had been intended for Sword & Sorcery, a magazine planned as a companion to Vision of Tomorrow, but which folded before its first issue appeared. New writers who appeared for the first time in the quarterly anthology series included Marta Randall (under the name Marta Bergstrasser), Eleanor Arnason, Geoff Ryman, and Rachel Pollack (as Richard A. Pollack).[20]
Issue 212 reprinted a piece written by Moorcock and M. John Harrison that was a spoof issue of The Guardian; it had been published in Frendz, an underground paper, in 1971. The next two issues also contained mock newspaper stories, but issue 215 contained somewhat more conventional material, including a Jerry Cornelius story, written by Charles Partington. Issue 216, the last of the late 1970s issues, reintroduced the mock news stories.[41]
The 1990s anthology series did not try to recapture the atmosphere or style of the 1960s or 1970s New Worlds. It contained some good material, including stories by Moorcock, Paul Di Filippo, and Ian McDonald, though it was financially unsuccessful.[21]
There have been a number of magazines that subsequently drew inspiration particularly from the later versions of New Worlds and these have included Samuel R. Delany and Marilyn Hacker's shortlived Quark/1-4 (New York 1970–71), Corridor, later called Wordworks (seven issues in all, 1971–74), published by New Worlds contributor Michael Butterworth, Scott Edelman's Last Wave (1982–85) and Interzone (since 1982) and, more recently, The Edge, both from the U.K.[42] More generally, New Worlds has been credited with "shap[ing] the way science fiction developed" as a genre.[43]
The following table shows the editorial succession at New Worlds, indicates which issues appeared from which publisher,[3][17][21][5] and gives the format, page count and price of each issue:[3][5][44] Note that dates in [square brackets] indicate the approximate date that an issue was released in cases where a month did not appear on the magazine itself.
| Issues | Dates | Editor | Publisher | Format | Page count | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | [July] 1946 – [October] 1946 | John Carnell | Pendulum Publications, London | Pulp | 64 | 2/- |
| 3 | [October] 1947 | 1/6 | ||||
| 4 | [April] 1949 – [April] 1949 | Nova Publications, London | Large digest | 88 | ||
| 5–20 | [September] 1949 – March 1953 | 96 | ||||
| 21–31 | June 1953 – January 1955 | Digest | 128 | |||
| 32–85 | February 1955 – July 1959 | 2/- | ||||
| 86 | August/September 1959 | 112 | ||||
| 87–88 | October 1959 – November 1959 | 128 | ||||
| 89–133 | August 1963 – April 1964 | 2/6 | ||||
| 134–141 | September 1963 – April 1964 | 3/- | ||||
| 142–159 | May/June 1964 – February 1966 | Michael Moorcock | Roberts & Vinter, Ltd, London | Paperback | 2/6 | |
| 160–170 | March 1966 – January 1967 | 160 | 3/6 | |||
| 171–172 | March 1967 – April 1967 | Gold Star Publications, London | 128 | |||
| 173–176 | July 1967 – October 1967 | Moorcock/Magnelist Publications, London | Slick | 64 | ||
| 177 | November 1967 | 5/- | ||||
| 178–182 | December 1967/January 1968 – July 1968 | Moorcock/Stonehart Publications, London | ||||
| 183–188 | October 1968 – March 1969 | Moorcock privately as New Worlds Publishing, London |
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| 189–192 | April 1969 – July 1969 | Langdon Jones | ||||
| 193 | August 1969 | Charles Platt | 32 | 3/6 | ||
| 194 | September/October 1969 | Michael Moorcock | ||||
| 195 | November 1969 | Charles Platt & R. Glyn Jones | ||||
| 196 | December 1969 | Graham Hall & Graham Charnock | ||||
| 197–200 | January 1970 – April 1970 | Charles Platt | ||||
| 201 | March 1971 | Michael Moorcock | A4 | 20 | 25p | |
| 202 | [September] 1971 | Sphere Books, London | Paperback | 176 | 30p | |
| 203 | [December] 1971 | 192 | ||||
| 204 | [March] 1972 | 208 | ||||
| 205 | [June] 1972 | 224 | 35p | |||
| 206 | [January] 1973 | 280 | 40p | |||
| 207 | [September] 1973 | 272 | ||||
| 208 | [December] 1974 | Hilary Bailey & Charles Platt | 216 | 50p | ||
| 209 | [March] 1975 | Hilary Bailey | 224 | |||
| 210 | [November] 1975 | Corgi Books, London | ||||
| 211 | [August] 1976 | 240 | 60p | |||
| 212 | Spring 1978 | Michael Moorcock | Michael Moorcock | A4 | 8 | Free |
| 213 | Summer 1978 | 32 | 40p | |||
| 214 | Winter 1978 | 56 | 75p | |||
| 215 | Spring 1979 | David Britton | David Britton | 48 | £1.00 | |
| 216 | September 1979 | Charles Platt | Charles Platt | 44 | ||
| 217 | 1991 | David Garnett | Gollancz, London | Paperback | 267 | £4.99 |
| 218 | 1992 | 293 | £5.99 | |||
| 219 | 1993 | 219 | £6.99 | |||
| 220 | 1994 | 224 | ||||
| 221 | Winter 1996 | Michael Moorcock | Michael Moorcock | A4 | 64 | £10.00 |
| 222 | 1997 | David Garnett | White Wolf, Stone Mountain GA | Paperback | 357 | $12.99 |
There were US reprints of the six of the New Worlds Quarterly anthology series. The first four were published by Berkley Books; Avon Books picked up two more of the series after Berkley dropped it, but since the fifth volume had been missed by that time, Avon retitled volumes 6 and 7 as New Worlds Quarterly 5 and New Worlds Quarterly 6.[21][20]
A US reprint edition of New Worlds ran briefly in 1960, published by Great American Publications, who at the time were the publishers of Fantastic Universe, edited by Hans Stefan Santesson. The first issue appeared in March 1960; it omitted Carnell's name, and credited Santesson as editor. Although the fiction consisted entirely of reprints, with all but one story coming from the British New Worlds, this was not declared to the reader.[45][5] Carnell was unhappy with the results of this attempt to break into the US market, but in the event Great American collapsed later that year and only five issues appeared, on a monthly schedule from March to July.[45][3] The contents of the issues did not correspond to specific British issues: the majority were taken from New Worlds but one story was reprinted from Nova's edition of Science Fiction Adventures, and three were taken from Fantastic Universe, which had ceased publication with its March 1960 issue.[3]
Subsequently the British edition was released in the US essentially unchanged, with a cover date delayed by one month, starting with issue 99 (October 1960).[3]
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