New Worlds

Entry updated 3 June 2024. Tagged: Publication.

Long the leading UK sf magazine (and anOriginal-Anthology series for two sections of its chequered career), publishing 222 issues during a span of 51 years ([July] 1946-August 1997), but including a 12-year hiatus.New Worlds, though it had volume numbers up to #177, has always been numbered consecutively (in its magazine incarnations); the first five were undated.

New Worlds was a development from a pre-World War TwoFanzine [1936-1939] called firstNovae Terrae and thenNew Worlds, the last four issues of which were edited by science-fiction fan JohnCarnell. The writer W JPassingham talked the firm The World Says into publishingNew Worlds professionally in 1939, just weeks before the Second World War began; but with the subsequent financial collapse of the company, plans were dropped. As a consequence it was not until after the War thatNew Worlds appeared, this time thanks to StephenFrances, who introduced Carnell to Pendulum Publications. Three small-Pulp-size issues were published irregularly by Pendulum during 1946 and 1947 under Carnell's editorship. Of these issues, the first was issued twice with different covers; #1 with the original cover had not sold well, but it did better the second time round (the second version used the same cover as #2).

Pendulum Publications then went bust, and a group of UK sf fans and professionals (including Carnell himself, Frank EdwardArnold, WalterGillings, Eric CWilliams and JohnWyndham), who used to meet at the White Horse pub in London, formed their own company, Nova Publications, in order to revive this somewhat tentative magazine in 1949 in large-Digest format. Carnell remained in charge until #141 (April 1964), after which the title was taken over by Roberts & Vinter, publishers of Compact Books, who issued it in a pocketbook-size edition edited by MichaelMoorcock, the first of these being #142 (May/June 1964). After #172 (March 1967) it was published by Moorcock under the auspices of the Arts Council in a stapled quarto-size format, rising to A4-size with #179. In this incarnationNew Worlds suffered financial difficulties, compounded when the leading UK retail-newsagent chain, W H Smith & Sons Ltd, refused to carry copies for various reasons, in particular the use of "obscene" language in NormanSpinrad'sBug Jack Barron (December 1967-October 1968; exp1969). The last issue to be properly released was #200 (April 1970), though in 1971 #201, a special final, "Good-Taste" issue with a retrospective index went out to subscribers. During this period Moorcock relaxed his control over the editorship, various members of his coterie taking a hand in the issues released in 1969 including GrahamCharnock, Graham Hall (1947-1980), LangdonJones and JamesSallis; CharlesPlatt was editor #197 (August 1969) to #200 (April 1970). For the greater part of the period from #22 to #200 the magazine maintained a monthly schedule with only occasional lapses.

In 1971 the title was revived again, this time as theNew Worlds Quarterly series of original anthologies (numbered from #1 again, although the original numeration was tacitly maintained) published in paperback by Sphere Books (#1-#8) and Corgi Books (#9 and #10). These wereNew Worlds Quarterly (anth1971; vtNew Worlds Quarterly #11971) edited by Moorcock;New Worlds Quarterly 2 (anth1971) edited by Moorcock;New Worlds Quarterly 3 (anth1972) edited by Moorcock;New Worlds Quarterly 4 (anth1972) edited by Moorcock;New Worlds Quarterly 5 (anth1973) edited by Moorcock;New Worlds 6: The Science Fiction Quarterly (anth1973; vtNew Worlds #51974) edited by Moorcock with Charles Platt;New Worlds 7 (anth1974; vtNew Worlds #61975) edited by HilaryBailey with Platt;New Worlds 8: The Science Fiction Quarterly (anth1975) edited by Bailey;New Worlds 9 (anth1975) edited by Bailey; andNew Worlds 10 (anth1976) edited by Bailey.

When the book series was cancelled,New Worlds was defunct, but the fervour of its supporters brought about yet another resuscitation in 1978, with #212 edited by Moorcock in aFanzine-style format, and #213-#216 (Summer 1978-September 1979) edited by various supporters, professionally published, the last two being in 1979. This incarnation, published by CharlesPartington in Manchester, was more a generalized underground magazine than an sf magazine; it contained many satirical graphics. #214 was titled in Russian. #215 (Spring 1979), edited by DavidBritton was marked "limited edition of one thousand copies".

In 1991 David SGarnett, with Moorcock's approval and with Moorcock as Consulting Editor, initiated yet another incarnation ofNew Worlds, this time inAnthology book form, asNew Worlds (anth1991),New Worlds 2 (anth1992),New Worlds 3 (anth1993) andNew Worlds 4 (anth1994) all edited by Garnett, published byGollancz. These volumes were numbered #217, #218, #219 and #220 according to the original sequence, which was again explicitly acknowledged. The financial results were disappointing, and Gollancz cancelled after the fourth, leaving Garnett looking for a new publisher. Meanwhile Moorcock put out a special fiftieth anniversary issue, dated Winter 1996 (#221), again in A4 magazine format before Garnett found a new publisher, White Wolf in the USA, to release a further issue (#222) in trade paperback format asNew Worlds (anth1997).

The magazine, now almost as legendary in the UK asWeird Tales is in the USA, refused to remain buried and it was resurrected again, this time asMichael Moorcock's New Worlds – initially intended to appear in both print format and online [for the website, seelinks below] but in the event online only, including video material. Two poorly promoted and largely ignored issues appeared; the publishing collective announced in October 2014 that owing to "massive lack of interest" this incarnation – allowed by though never in fact seen by Moorcock himself – had ceased. A further one-off anthology is currently in preparation for publication in 2024 to mark the sixtieth anniversary of Moorcock's takeover of the magazine with #142 (May/June 1964).

Under Carnell,New Worlds was the primary force in shaping a tradition in UK magazine sf, and under Moorcock its name became the banner of what was dubbed theNew Wave. Carnell provided a stable domestic market, not only withNew Worlds but with its companion magazinesScience Fantasy andScience Fiction Adventures, for the leading UK writers and played a considerable role in the careers of Brian WAldiss, J GBallard, JohnBrunner, KennethBulmer, ColinKapp, E CTubb and JamesWhite. He encouraged a species of sf more sober in tone than much US material, with the emphasis on problem-solving; an excellent example of the species is James White'sSector General series. In publishing ambitious work by Aldiss and most of Ballard's early work, Carnell began a shift in emphasis toward psychological and existential sf (seeFabulation;Psychology), which also showed in his choice of reprints from US authors: Philip KDick'sTime Out of Joint (December 1959-February 1960;1959) and TheodoreSturgeon'sVenus Plus X (January-April 1961;1960). Most of the US magazines were also shifting their emphasis away from the "hardware" of sf, but retained a kind of brashness not evident inNew Worlds save in the work of those authors most heavily influenced by pulp sf.New Worlds was available throughout the British Commonwealth and the magazine thus encouraged contributions from around the globe. These included JohnBaxter, LeeHarding and DavidRome from Australia, Clifford CReed from South Africa and H A Hargreaves from Canada. With falling sales in the magazine, and believing the future of publishing was in the paperback market, Carnell foldedNew Worlds and turned toNew Writings in SF. At the last minute, however, Carnell was able to sell the magazine to Roberts & Vinter, thanks to the intervention of Michael Moorcock.

Moorcock's editorship was a good deal more flamboyant than Carnell's, and he was as polemical in the material which provided the environment for the fiction as John WCampbell Jr had been inAstounding Science-Fiction during the early 1940s, though to very different ends, juxtaposing fiction with factual social comment, visual collage, even concrete poetry, in a deliberate attempt to lose theGenre-SF image and to place speculative fiction in a context of rapid social change, and radical art generally. Apart from his ownavant-garde material (often written as James Colvin), he promoted inventive UK writers like Barrington JBayley, LangdonJones, David IMasson and, later, RobertHoldstock and IanWatson, and recruited some US writers – notably Thomas MDisch, John TSladek, NormanSpinrad and RogerZelazny. Moorcock's earlyJerry Cornelius pieces appeared inNew Worlds, as did hisNebula-winning "Behold, the Man" (September 1966; exp asBehold the Man1969). The large-size version serialized, in addition to Spinrad'sBug Jack Barron (noted above),Camp Concentration by Disch (July-October 1967;1968), and featured two more Nebula-winning short pieces: Samuel RDelany's "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones" (December 1968), which also won aHugo, and HarlanEllison's "A Boy and His Dog" (April 1969). Under Moorcock,New Worlds established in its review columns a particularly trenchant style of criticism which continued in the paperback anthologies, much of it written by JohnClute and M JohnHarrison. It cannot be said that Moorcock's programme met with wide-ranging approval, especially among those readers attuned to the more modest and traditional aspects of Carnell's policy, and it certainly lacked Carnell's sense of balance, but its contribution to sf in the 1960s and early 1970s was considerable – the paths beaten by theNew Worlds writers are now much more generally in use.

Garnett's annualNew Worlds anthology of the 1990s could not find a secure market niche, though the contents were impressive, featuring good stories by, among others, StormConstantine, PaulDi Filippo, IanMcDonald, KimNewman and Moorcock himself, and also an annual round-up of the year's sf by JohnClute. Although Garnett sensibly avoided nostalgia for the 1960s/1970s, the enterprise seems to have been doomed anyway.

A US edition ofNew Worlds, with Hans StefanSantesson credited as editor, ran for five issues March to July 1960, selected mainly from the 1959New Worlds with some stories from other sources. Some unsold issues of the Roberts & VinterNew Worlds were bound up in twos and threes and sold under the titleSF Reprise, these beingSF Reprise 1 (anth1966) containing #144/#145;SF Reprise 2 (anth1966) containing #149/#150; andSF Reprise 5 (anth1967) containing #149-#151.

There were manyNew Worlds-derived anthologies. Carnell editedThe Best From New Worlds Science Fiction (anth1955), and hisLambda I and Other Stories (anth1964; UK and US contents vary) was also selected fromNew Worlds. Moorcock editedThe Best of New Worlds (anth1965),Best S.F. Stories from New Worlds (anth1967),Best Stories from New Worlds 2 (anth1968; vtBest S.F. Stories from New Worlds 2),Best S.F. Stories from New Worlds 3 (anth1968),Best S.F. Stories from New Worlds 4 (anth1969),Best S.F. Stories from New Worlds 5 (anth1969),Best S.F. Stories from New Worlds 6 (anth1970),Best S.F. Stories from New Worlds 7 (anth1971) andBest S.F. Stories from New Worlds 8 (anth1974), as well as the retrospectiveNew Worlds: An Anthology (anth1983). These series anthologies also sometimes used stories fromScience Fantasy/Impulse. The first six of the eightBest S.F. Stories from New Worlds volumes were also published in the USA. [BS/PN/MA/DRL]

further reading

David Brittain.Eduardo Paolozzi at New Worlds: Science Fiction and Art in the Sixties (Manchester, England: Savoy Books,2013) [nonfiction: illus/PamelaZoline plus archive material: pb/JohnCoulthart]
ColinGreenland.The Entropy Exhibition: Michael Moorcock and the British "New Wave" in Science Fiction (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul,1983) [nonfiction: BrianAldiss: J GBallard: MichaelMoorcock: hb/JudithClute]
JohnBoston and DamienBroderick.Building New Worlds, 1946-1959: The Carnell Era, Volume One (Rockville, Maryland: Wildside Press/San Bernardino, California: The Borgo Press,2013) [nonfiction: in the publisher'sBorgo Literary Guides series: pb/]
JohnBoston and DamienBroderick.New Worlds: Before the New Wave, 1960-1964: The Carnell Era, Volume Two (Rockville, Maryland: Wildside Press/San Bernardino, California: The Borgo Press,2013) [nonfiction: in the publisher'sBorgo Literary Guides series: pb/]
DavidLangford, editor.New Worlds Profiles (Reading, Berkshire: Ansible Editions,2024) [nonfiction/biography: coll: assembles all author/artist Profile features fromNew Worlds in the JohnCarnell era: pb/photocollage]

New Worlds: Best of New Worlds

MichaelMoorcock, editor.The Best of New Worlds (Compact Books,1965) [anth: technically standalone but in effect the first volume of the sequence:Best of New Worlds: pb/]
MichaelMoorcock, editor.Best S.F. Stories from New Worlds (London: Panther,1967) [anth:Best of New Worlds: pb/uncredited]
- MichaelMoorcock, editor.The Best SF Stories from New Worlds (New York: Berkley Medallion,1968) [anth: vt of the above:Best of New Worlds: pb/PaulLehr]
MichaelMoorcock, editor.Best Stories from New Worlds 2 (London: Panther,1968) [anth:Best of New Worlds: pb/uncredited]
- MichaelMoorcock, editor.The Best SF Stories from New Worlds 2 (New York: Berkley Medallion,1969) [anth: vt of the above:Best of New Worlds: pb/uncredited]
MichaelMoorcock, editor.Best S.F. Stories from New Worlds 3 (London: Panther,1968) [anth:Best of New Worlds: pb/uncredited]
- MichaelMoorcock, editor.Best SF Stories from New Worlds 3 (New York: Berkley Medallion,1970) [anth: vt of the above:Best of New Worlds: pb/uncredited]
MichaelMoorcock, editor.Best SF Stories from New Worlds 4 (London: Panther,1969) [anth:Best of New Worlds: pb/uncredited]
MichaelMoorcock, editor.Best SF Stories from New Worlds 5 (London: Panther,1969) [anth:Best of New Worlds: pb/uncredited]
MichaelMoorcock, editor.Best SF Stories from New Worlds 6 (London: Panther,1970) [anth:Best of New Worlds: pb/Enzo Ragazzini]
MichaelMoorcock, editor.Best SF Stories from New Worlds 7 (London: Panther,1971) [anth:Best of New Worlds: pb/uncredited]
MichaelMoorcock, editor.Best S.F. Stories from New Worlds 8 (London: Panther,1974) [anth:Best of New Worlds: pb/JimBurns]
MichaelMoorcock, editor.New Worlds: An Anthology (London: Flamingo,1983) [anth: includes index, with contents lists, of all issues to #216, September 1979: undesignated continuation of the sequence:Best of New Worlds: pb/from Juan Miró]