CARNELL, John (Edward)

(1912-1972)

   UK editor, anthologist and literary agent who worked usually as John Carnell and sometimes as E.J. Carnell; he was known to his friends as Ted. A prominent member of UK FANDOM, JC took over the editorship of NOVAE TERRAE , an early FANZINE, in 1939, retitling his issues (\#29-\#33) New Worlds. He began his professional career as editor in 1946 when NEW WORLDS was revived as a professional SF MAGAZINE. After only 3 issues the publisher failed, but JC with help from fandom was able to renew the title in 1949 with his own company, Nova Publications; he also took over from Walter GILLINGS as editor of the Nova Publications title SCIENCE FANTASY from \#3 onwards. The third Nova Publications title, also ed JC, was the UK reprint edition of Larry SHAW's SCIENCE FICTION ADVENTURES. The first 5 UK issues of this, Mar-Nov 1958, were all US reprints, but from the Jan 1959 issue it became an original UK magazine. It ceased publication with the May 1963 issue, but the other two titles continued under JC until mid-1964, when they were taken over by Roberts \& Vinter under new editors. JC then established a series of original ANTHOLOGIES, NEW WRITINGS IN SF, comprising NEW WRITINGS IN SF 1 (anth 1964), \#2 (anth 1964), \#3 (anth 1965), \#4 (anth 1965), \#5 (anth 1965), \#6 (anth 1965), \#7 (anth 1966), \#8 (anth 1966), \#9 (anth 1966), \#10 (anth 1967), \#11 (anth 1967), \#12 (anth 1968), \#13 (anth 1968), \#14 (anth 1969), \#15 (anth 1969), \#16 (anth 1970),\#17 (anth 1970), \#18 (anth 1971), \#19 (anth 1971), \#20 (anth 1972), and \#21 (anth 1972), the last being published after his death. Nine volumes of this series, with contents differing from those in the UK numeration, were published in the USA by BANTAM BOOKS 1966-72. JC, who formally set up the E.J. Carnell Literary Agency in 1964, was agent for most UK sf writers. He was cofounder of the INTERNATIONAL FANTASY AWARD. He was scrupulous, worked hard and profited little. His contribution to UK sf was enormous. For over a quarter of a century he was an early and often first publisher of an entire generation of UK and Irish sf writers. Although his own preference was for conservative HARD SF and sf adventure - he published a lot of it by writers such as John CHRISTOPHER and later Kenneth BULMER and E.C. TUBB - he also gave active encouragement to many of the writers who were later to become strongly associated with Michael MOORCOCK's NW, writers of the NEW WAVE including Brian W. ALDISS, J.G. BALLARD, John BRUNNER and Moorcock himself, whose succession to the editorship of NW JC supported. JC also edited a handful of reprint anthologies: Jinn and Jitters (anth 1946), No Place Like Earth (anth 1952), Gateway to Tomorrow (anth 1954), Gateway to the Stars (anth 1955), The Best from New Worlds Science Fiction (anth 1955), Lambda 1 \& Other Stories (anth 1964 US; with 1 story dropped and 2 added 1965 UK), Weird Shadows from Beyond (anth 1965) and Best of NEW WRITINGS IN SF (anth 1971).

   PN