NEW WORLDS

   The leading UK sf magazine (an ORIGINAL-ANTHOLOGY series for two sections of its chequered career), publishing 218 issues over an intermittent career of nearly 50 years (July) 1946-current), but including a 12-year hiatus; 12 of these issues have been in book form. NW, though it had volume numbers up to \#177, has always been numbered consecutively (in its magazine incarnations), the numeration not beginning again with each volume number. \#1-\#5 were undated.3 PULP-size issues were published irregularly by Pendulum in 1946-7 under the editorship of an sf fan, John CARNELL (NW was a development from a pre-WWII FANZINE (1936-9) called first NOVAE TERRAE and then New Worlds, the last 4 issues of which were ed Carnell). \#1 was issued twice with different covers; \#1 with the originalcover had not sold well, but it did better the second time round (the second version used the same cover as \#2).Nova Publications, a publishing group formed by UK sf fans who used to meet at the White Horse pub in London, revived this somewhat tentative 1946-7 magazine in 1949 as aDIGEST. Carnell remained in charge until \#141 (Apr 1964), after which the title was taken over by Roberts \& Vinter, publishers of Compact Books, who issued it in a pocketbook (paperback-size) edition, ed Michael MOORCOCK. After \#172 (Mar 1967) it was published by Moorcock under the auspices ofthe Arts Council in a stapled 8in x 11in (approx A4) format, rising to BEDSHEET-size with \#179. In this incarnation NW suffered financialdifficulties, compounded when the leading UK retail-newsagent chain, W.H. Smith \& Sons Ltd, refused to carry copies for various reasons, inparticular the use of "obscene" language in Norman SPINRAD's BUG JACK BARRON (Dec 1967-July 1968; 1969). The last issue to be properly releasedwas \#200 (Apr 1970), though in 1971 \#201, a special final, "Good-Taste" issue with retrospective index went out to subscribers. During this period Moorcock relaxed his control over the editorship, various members of hiscoterie taking a hand in the issues released in 1969; Charles PLATT was editor \#197-\#200. 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 a series of original anthologies (numbered from \#1 again, although the original numeration was tacitlymaintained) published in paperback by Sphere Books (\#1-\#8) and Corgi Books (\#9 and \#10). These were New Worlds \#1 (anth 1971; vt New Worlds Quarterly1 1971 US) ed Moorcock; \#2 (anth 1971; vt New Worlds Quarterly 2 1971 US) ed Moorcock; \#3 (anth 1972; vt New Worlds Quarterly 3 1972 US) ed Moorcock; \#4 (anth 1972; vt New Worlds Quarterly 4 1972 US) ed Moorcock;\#5 (anth 1973) ed Moorcock; \#6 (anth 1973; vt New Worlds Quarterly 5 1974 US) ed Moorcock with Charles Platt; \#7 (anth 1974) ed Hilary BAILEY with Platt; \#8 (anth 1975) ed Bailey; \#9 (anth 1975) ed Bailey; and \#10 (anth 1976) ed Bailey.When the book series was cancelled, NW was defunct, but the fervour of its supporters brought about yet another resuscitation in 1978, with \#212 ed Moorcock in a FANZINE-style format, and \#213-\#216 ed byvarious supporters professionally published, the last 2 being in 1979. This final incarnation, published by Charles Partington in Manchester, wasmore a generalized underground magazine than an sf magazine; it contained many satirical graphics. \#214 was titled in Russian. \#215 ed David BRITTON was marked "limited edition of one thousand copies".In 1991 David S. GARNETT, with Moorcock's approval and with Moorcock as Consulting Editor,initiated yet another incarnation of NW, this time in anthology book form, as New Worlds (anth 1991), New Worlds 2 (anth 1992), New Worlds 3 (anth 1993) and New Worlds 4 (anth 1994) all ed Garnett, published by GOLLANCZ.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 currently looking for a new publisher.Under Carnell NW was the primary force in shaping a tradition in UK magazine sf, and under Moorcock its name became the banner of what was dubbed the NEW WAVE.Carnell provided a stable domestic market for the leading UK writers and played a considerable role in the careers of Brian W. ALDISS, J.G. BALLARD, John BRUNNER, Kenneth BULMER, Colin KAPP, E.C. TUBB 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's Sector 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 (FABULATION; PSYCHOLOGY), which also showed in his choice of reprints from US authors:Philip K. DICK's Time Out of Joint (Dec 1959-Feb 1960; 1959) and Theodore STURGEON's Venus Plus X (Jan-Apr 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 in NW save in the work of those authors most heavily influenced by pulp sf.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 W. CAMPBELL Jr had been in ASTOUNDING 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 the GENRE-SF image and to place speculative fiction in a context of rapid social change, and radical art generally. Apart from his own avant-garde material (often written as James Colvin), he promoted inventive UK writers like Barrington J. BAYLEY, Langdon JONES, David I. MASSON and, later, Ian WATSON, and recruited some US writers - notablyThomas M. DISCH and John T. SLADEK. Moorcock's early Jerry Cornelius pieces appeared in NW, as did his NEBULA-winning "Behold, the Man" (Sep 1966; exp as BEHOLD THE MAN 1969). The large-size version serialized, inaddition to Spinrad's BUG JACK BARRON (noted above), CAMP CONCENTRATION by Disch (July-Sep 1967; 1968), and featured 2 more Nebula-winning shortpieces: Samuel R. DELANY's "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones" (Dec 1968), which also won a HUGO, and Harlan ELLISON's "A Boy andHis Dog" (Apr 1969). Under Moorcock NW established in its review columns a particularly trenchant style of criticism which continued in the paperback anthologies, much of it written by John CLUTE and M. John HARRISON. 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 was considerable-the paths beaten by the NW writers are now much more generally in use.Garnett's annualNW anthology of the 1990s could not find a secure market niche, though the contents were impressive, featuring good stories by, among others, Storm CONSTANTINE, Paul Di Filippo, Ian MCDONALD, Kim NEWMAN and Moorcock himself, and also an annual round-up of the year's sfby John CLUTE. Although Garnett sensibly avoided nostalgia for the 1960s/1970s, the enterprise seems to have been doomed anyway.A US editionof NW, with Hans Stefan SANTESSON credited as editor, ran for 5 issues Mar-July 1960, selected mainly from the 1959 NW with some stories fromother sources. Some unsold issues of the Roberts \& Vinter NW were bound up in twos and threes and sold under the title SF REPRISE, these being SF Reprise 1 (anth 1966) containing \#144/\#145; SF Reprise 2 (anth 1966)containing \#149/\#150; and SF Reprise 5 (anth 1967) containing \#149-\#151.There were many derived anthologies. Carnell ed The Best FromNew Worlds Science Fiction (anth 1955), and his Lambda 1 and Other Stories (anth 1964; UK and US contents vary) was also selected from NW. Moorcock ed The Best of New Worlds (anth 1965), Best S.F. Stories from New Worlds (anth 1967), Best Stories from New Worlds 2 (anth 1968; vt Best S.F.Stories from New Worlds 2 US), Best S.F. Stories from New Worlds 3 (anth 1968), Best S.F. Stories from New Worlds 4 (anth 1969), Best S.F. Stories from New Worlds 5 (anth 1969), Best S.F. Stories from New Worlds 6 (anth 1970), Best S.F. Stories from New Worlds 7 (anth 1971) and Best S.F.Stories from New Worlds 8 (anth 1974), as well as the retrospective New Worlds: An Anthology (anth 1983). These series anthologies also sometimes used stories from SCIENCE FANTASY Impulse. The first 6 of the 8 Best S.F. Stories from New Worlds vols were also published in the USA.

   BS/PN

   See also: ENTROPY; TABOOS.