UK magazine New Worlds gained notoreity in the mid-1960s, under the editoriship of Michael Moorcock, as the hub of the "New Wave" movement in science fiction, with experimental writing and challenges to traditional themes of SF, and suffering charges of obscenity that led to problems with distribution.

But the magazine had been around nearly two decades before Moorcock; it was founded in 1946 and was edited for some 19 years by John Carnell as a solid, conventional SF magazine, somewhat the UK counterpart of Astounding. Carnell produced one "best of" volume during his era, in 1955, gathering eight stories from 1949 to 1954. (Carnell later published 21 original anthologies of "New Writings in SF" until his death; that series was taken over by Kenneth Bulmer.)

As Michael Moorcock became editor in mid-1964, he produced his own "best of" volume in 1965, with 15 stories from 1958 up to 1965.

During the six years of Moorcock's tenure he published eight volumes of "Best SF Stories from New Worlds" for Panther in the UK. Only the first six of these were published in the US, by Berkeley Medallion, with Paul Lehr covers, as shown in the photo. The books were not sequential, each publishing a range of stories from 1962 up to 1969, but as a group they average out as annuals.

After the magazine suspended in 1971, Moorcock, and later Hilary Bailey, published a total of 10 original anthologies from New Worlds Quarterly #1 through New Worlds 10 in 1976. Three final issues of the magazine appeared in 1978 and 1979, edited by Moorcock and others.

Then in 1983 Moorcock published a large retrospective volume, New Worlds: An Anthology, with 20 stories, one poem, and several essays, the stories from 1965 to 1975, including several from the 10 anthologies; and a 130-page index listing the tables of contents of all 216 issues and anthologies.

Most reprinted authors: Langdon Jones (8); Brian W. Aldiss, J.G. Ballard, and Barrington J. Bayley (7 each); Thomas M. Disch (6); Hilary Bailey and Charles Platt (5 each); and M. John Harrison, Michael Moorcock, and D.M. Thomas (4 each).