Publishing history
Early years
In 1926, Hugo Gernsback launched ''Nova Publications
In May 1948 Carnell announced at a science fiction convention in London that plans were well underway to form a new company, to be called Nova Publications Ltd. Nova raised £600 in capital and was launched in early 1949. There were initially six directors: the chairman wasRoberts & Vinter
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 andArts Council
The partnership Warburton and Moorcock formed to continue ''New Worlds'' was named Magnelist Publications. Moorcock and Warburton reviewed the dummy issue Moorcock had put together when he first became editor, and Warburton agreed to switch to the larger format. 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. Warburton ceased his involvement after the November issue, but the magazine was again saved, this time by Sylvester Stein of Stonehart Publications. Delays led to a skipped month, with the December 1967 and January 1968 issues being combined into one, but a monthly schedule returned thereafter."Good News", a loose leaf insert in ''New Worlds'' 178. The March 1968 issue contained the third instalment ofLater incarnations
When Moorcock realised that the magazine would have to fold, he made arrangements withMoorcock
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 newsstands; it would specialise in experimental work by writers like illiamBurroughs and duardo 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."Michael Moorcock, "Introduction", in Moorcock, '' New Worlds: An Anthology'', pp. 10–11. 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."Letter in "Postmortem", ''New Worlds'' August 1964, p. 128. 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'',John Carnell, "Farewell Editorial", ''New Worlds'' August 1964, p. 123. though Moorcock had been unaware he would be considered for the post when he wrote his letter. 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 ofArts Council and after
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 ''''New Worlds'' and the "New Wave"
''New Worlds'' greatest influence on science fiction came in the 1960s, with the "New Wave" that began with Moorcock's polemical editorials. Moorcock asserted in 1965 that a writer of good sf "can learn from his predecessors, but he should not imitate them"; and he was soon publishing stories that were quite different in technique and style from anything that had appeared before, not just in ''New Worlds'' itself, but in any of the sf magazines.Moorcock, "Editorial", Priest, "New Wave", in Holdstock, ''Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'', p. 165. Moorcock's goal was to use the magazine to "define a new avant-garde role" for the genre. ''New Worlds'' thus became the "ideological center of the ew Wavemovement to rejuvenate conjectural literature". The term "New Wave" did not always meet with approval among those who were regarded as part of it (this included Moorcock, who denied that he was creating a movement). Brian Aldiss, for example, wrote to Judith Merril in 1966 that he suspected the term was "a journalistic invention of yours and Mike Moorcock's", and added "I feel I am no part of the New Wave; I was here before 'em, and by God I mean to be here after they've gone (still writing bloody science fiction)!"Quoted in James, ''Science Fiction in the 20th Century'', p. 172. Merril was an important advocate for ''New Worlds'' and the New Wave, and popularized the latter in her anthology ''England Swings SF'', which appeared in 1968; she spent almost a year in London, living near Moorcock, when researching the anthology in 1966–1967.Merril & Pohl-Weary, ''Better to Have Loved'', p. 162. Merril and writer Christopher Priest were among those who used the term "New Wave" to describe the work being done in ''New Worlds'', but Aldiss was not the only writer to object to the term, and it never received a generally accepted definition.James, ''Science Fiction in the 20th Century'', p. 173. Critic Brian Attebery characterizes it as a "disruptive, existentially fraught and formally daring" style; Peter Nicholls hesitates to define it but comments that "perhaps the fundamental element was the belief that sf could and should be taken seriously as literature". In a 1967 interview, Ballard, one of the writers most closely associated with the New Wave, described modern US 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." Whatever the exact definition of the term, between 1964 and 1966, ''New Worlds'' was at the forefront of the New Wave movement. Two guest editorials in 1962 and 1963 ("Which way to Inner Space?" by Ballard and "Play with Feeling" by Moorcock) were arguably the "first glimmerings" of New Wave ideas in sf magazines. Latham suggests that these were "the first volleys in the polemical offensive they would launch once oorcockgained control of the magazine and installed allardas his resident visionary". The response to the New Wave from critics and sf fans was varied. Christopher Priest called ''New Worlds'' a "New Wave prozine", but lauded the talents of its writers and its experimental stories (with the exception of Ballard's ''The Crystal World'', which he deemed "tedious and wearying"). Ian McAuley suggested the magazine's editors were "plugging the 'inner-space' jazz for all its worth". Mike Ashley argued that ''New Worlds'' was instrumental in promoting authors who would not otherwise have been published (a suggestion with which Bould and Butler concur). Ballard was a particular focus of both praise and vehement criticism, and was vigorously defended by Moorcock. Peter Weston took an "even-handed approach" by praising ''New Worlds'' in ''Speculation'' editorials, in contrast with his largely negative columnists. Beginning in 1966, US fanzines began responding to ''New Worlds'' and its detractors, and the debate spread to the professional US magazines as well. Merril praised Disch and Ballard's contributions to ''New Worlds'' in ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'';Bibliographic details
The following table shows the editorial succession at ''New Worlds'', indicates which issues appeared from which publisher,Mike Ashley, "New Worlds", in Tymn & Ashley, ''Science Fiction, Fantasy and Weird Fiction Magazines'', pp. 423–437.See the individual issues. For convenience, an online index is available at Ashley, ''Gateways to Forever'', p. 435. and gives the format, page count and price of each issue: Dates inUS editions
A US reprint edition of ''New Worlds'' ran briefly in 1960, published by Great American Publications, who at the time were the publishers of ''