New Worlds (magazine)
New Worlds was a British science fiction magazine that began in 1936 as a fanzine called Novae Terrae. John Carnell, who became Novae Terraes editor in 1939, renamed it New Worlds that year. He was instrumental in turning it into a professional publication in 1946 and was the first editor of the new incarnation. It became the leading UK science fiction magazine; the period to 1960 has been described by science fiction historian Mike Ashley as the magazine's "Golden Age".
Carnell joined the British Army in 1940 following the outbreak of the Second World War and returned to civilian life in 1946. He negotiated a publishing agreement for the magazine with Pendulum Publications, but only three issues of New Worlds were produced before Pendulum's bankruptcy in late 1947. A group of science fiction fans formed a company called Nova Publications to revive the magazine; the first issue under their management appeared in mid-1949. New Worlds continued to appear on a regular basis until issue 20, published in early 1953, following which a change of printers led to a hiatus in publication. In early 1954, when Maclaren & Sons acquired control of Nova Publications, the magazine returned to a stable monthly schedule.
Roberts & Vinter acquired New Worlds in 1964 when Michael Moorcock became editor. By the end of 1966, financial problems with their distributor led Roberts & Vinter to abandon New Worlds, but with the aid of an Arts Council grant obtained by Brian Aldiss, Moorcock was able to publish the magazine independently. He featured experimental and avant-garde material, and New Worlds became the focus of the "New Wave" of science fiction. Reaction among the science fiction community was mixed, with partisans and opponents of the New Wave debating the merits of New Worlds in the columns of fanzines such as Zenith-Speculation. Several of the regular contributors during this period, including Brian Aldiss, J. G. Ballard, Thomas M. Disch, and Moorcock himself, became major names in the field. By 1970, Moorcock was too in debt to continue with the magazine, and it became a paperback quarterly after issue 201. The title has been revived multiple times with Moorcock's direct involvement or approval; by 2021, 22 additional issues had appeared in various formats, including several anthologies.
Publishing history
Early years
In 1926, Hugo Gernsback launched Amazing Stories, the first science fiction magazine. It was soon followed by other US titles also specialising in sf, such as Astounding Stories and Wonder Stories. These were distributed in the UK, and British fan organisations began to appear. In 1936, Maurice K. Hanson, a science fiction fan living in Nuneaton, founded a fanzine called Novae Terrae for the local branch of the Science Fiction League. Hanson moved to London and his fanzine became the official publication of the Science Fiction Association, founded in 1937.Arthur C. Clarke, John Carnell and William F. Temple became involved in Novae Terraes 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; the first issue under Carnell's control was 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. In January 1940 Carnell was asked to put together three issues, and Carnell and Passingham each put up £50 towards costs. 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. Alfred Greig, the director, returned to his native Canada without repaying Carnell and Passingham, and no issues were ever printed.
Carnell joined the army in 1940, serving with the Royal Artillery, Combined Operations, and Naval Bombardment. After his return 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. Frances believed in the commercial possibilities of science fiction, and since Carnell still had the portfolio of stories he had put together in 1940, Pendulum agreed to make New Worlds into a professional magazine. The first issue appeared in July 1946, although 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 the cover artwork, which he considered to be weak, was partly responsible for the poor sales. He put together a new design, based on covers from two US 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; in combination with Pendulum's investment in promoting the magazine this led to much better sales, and the second issue sold out completely. Pendulum rebound the remaining copies of the first issue with the second cover design, and repriced them at 1/6 ; the first two issues had been priced at 2/-. The new cover and price were much more popular and the repackaged first issue, like the second, soon sold out.
Pendulum Publications produced one more issue in October 1947, shortly before going bankrupt and thus leaving New Worlds without a publisher. The magazine was saved by a group of sf fans who since 1946 had been meeting regularly on Thursday nights at the White Horse public house on New Fetter Lane, near Fleet Street. At one of those meetings it was suggested that they form a company to revive New Worlds; one of those present, Frank Cooper, recently retired from the Royal Air Force, agreed to look into what would be necessary to start a new company.
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 was John Wyndham, and the remaining board members were G. Ken Chapman, Frank Cooper, Walter Gillings, Eric C. Williams, and John Carnell. A printer was found near Stoke Newington, where Frank Cooper was based, and the first issue appeared in June. It was planned to move to regular quarterly publication, and subsequently to a bimonthly schedule. 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 appeared in September, and the sixth issue early the following year, dated Spring 1950.In 1950, with New Worlds on a stable quarterly schedule, Nova Publications decided to launch a companion, Science Fantasy. 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, and partly because of "fundamental differences of opinion". 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 looked for a cheaper printer. The new printer, The Carlton Press, was supposed to take over production with the May 1953 issue, but the issue was late, and had to be dated June 1953 instead. The issue was shoddily produced, which dismayed Nova's board, and printers' strikes caused further delays. Nova discovered that The Carlton Press was 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 was promised for November. Even this schedule was not adhered to, and Carnell received a copy of the print run in January 1954. The copy was dated 1953, and since this made it useless for distribution in 1954, Carnell refused to accept the print run.
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, 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 which had printed the issue was 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 after 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.
The financial support that Maclaren provided meant that once issue 22 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 and it was combined with the September issue. Despite this stability, New Worldss 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. In September of that year Nova's board decided to close down both New Worlds and Science Fantasy, 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.