Donald A. Wollheim launched his solo annual series with his eponymously-named publishing imprint DAW, producing 19 volumes until his death in 1990. The co-editor, acknolwedged on the title pages but not the covers, was Arthur W. Saha. The books were paperback originals throughout the run, with hardcover editions from the US Science Fiction Book Club. (The photo shows some of each.) As with the Wollheim/Carr series the title evoked a world-wide scope, though as with the earlier series, selections rarely came from outside familiar genre sources. Wollheim's selections tended to be more conservative than Carr's; the introduction to the first story in Wollheim's first volume expresses relief than Larry Niven, despite publishing a story in an anthology edited by Samuel R. Delany, had not "sold out" the "great tradition."
Most reprinted authors: Tanith Lee, Frederik Pohl, and John Varley (7 each), Robert Silverberg and James Tiptree, Jr. (6 each), then Lucius Shepard (5).
Most frequent sources: F&SF (39), Analog and Asimov's (33 each), then Galaxy and Omni (14 each). Anthologies provided 43 of the 207 stories, including 4 from Carr's Universe, 3 from Knight's Orbit, but none from Silverberg's New Dimensions.
The 1972 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1972)
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The 1973 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1973)
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The 1974 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1974)
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The 1975 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1975)
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The 1976 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1976)
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The 1977 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1977)
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The 1978 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1978)
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The 1979 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1979)
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The 1980 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1980)
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The 1981 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1981)
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The 1982 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1982)
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The 1983 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1983)
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The 1984 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1984)
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The 1985 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1985)
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The 1986 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1986)
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The 1987 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1987)
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The 1988 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1988)
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The 1989 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1989)
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The 1990 Annual World's Best SF, (DAW, 1990)
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