IMT Worlds of If Science Fiction Magazine British Reprint Edition (BRE) page

(Worlds of) If SF Magazine British Reprint Edition (BRE)

although the front cover & masthead bore the "Worlds of" prefix, and Arnold E Abramson's Universal Publishing & Distribution Corporation/Tandem Books Ltd british reprint editions inconsistently presumed to include this, the title of record was "If"

N.B. this page not yet finished - listing of most of the issues in stock, contents, etc to do.
in the meantime, please enquire after any issue[s] i've not yet given a price for; v$imt$v at my domain, i-m-t.demon.co.uk

i've just bought a small collection of prozines from a fan moving to a smaller house, brizzle way; the list of issues in stock is no longer correct, as it is incomplete; prices given for copies are correct, though.
now i have to sort out the back room's lighting circuit (the landlord still hasn't - and i suspect will not, anytime soon this century...); i fear the damage is under the flat roof - or under the ground floor, where the landlord's contractor casually looped the cabling c. 25' from the former back wall, to underneath the consumer unit - posh for fuse box - at the front.
and list the zines that've been waiting quietly on their shelves for over a decade, as well as those in their boxes here in the front, that've been waiting patiently for about as long...

All are Digest Format Issues:
this varies a little in height especially from the original height chosen by Robert Quinn, and continued in the 1960-62 bre, down to that of Robert M. Guinn's Galaxy, for the Gold Star bres, and back up much of the way for the Universal-Tandem & Tandem bres.

Worlds of If: Strato bre issues

Strato's Thorpe & Porter-distributed british reprint edition of started off with 15 issues from the James L Quinn-edited & published If 1953-4, as a companion to their successful British Reprint Edition of Galaxy & other sf prozines.
these had cover & interior uk adverts [or blank spaces] & were printed by N. V. De Arbeiderpers, Amsterdam, Holland for uk & empire distribution

i've yet to get at, price up & list IMT's stock of these - please ask, if interested

Vol.: 1. No. 1
Vol.: 1. No.
Vol.: 1. No. 3 rco ukL 0.25

after No. 15 the original merkin issues may've been distributed in the uk until:
Strato's Thorpe & Porter-distributed british reprint editions started again, after the sale of If to Digest Productions Corporation, the publishers of Galaxy SF Magazine as a companion to their successful British Reprint Edition of that magazine,
starting again at Mo. 1!
Nos. 1 & 2 had covers & interior with uk adverts & had a for-uk edition title page: these were printed by T. J Press Ltd of London S.E.5; from No. 3 through No. 15 the bre was the complete, now bi-monthly original, No. 3 of March 1960, printed with the uk No. & price by the Guinn Company, Inc, original printers to, and by then owners of, Digest Productions Corporation Inc;
Numbering continued consecutively up to No.18, September 1962, the last to see a Thorp & Porter-distributed bre.

#1 (& September 1959 on masthead) ukL 1.95
#2 (no date on masthead; 1959 copyright in indica; "trick or treat" halloween cover by John Pederson) ukL 1.95

From No. 3 onwards, the "bre" was the merkin original with a "for-uk" variant cover (March 1960 through ? May/June/July/August 1962 ?) and possibly as far as October 1962 (last Thorpe & Porter-distributed issues may've been merkin editions with uk price & number/date rubber-stamped on front covers)

for-uk covered merkin issues; masthead date given is also that of merkin edition

#3 (March 1960 masthead) ukL 2.95
(cover fly edges somewhat ragged, as trimmed to a wider format than the carcass of the magazine, pages browning from edges, fair)

From No. ? onwards, the original merkin date was added to the uk number cover (by November 1961), through September 1962; whereafter merkin copies were rubber-stamped with uk price and numerically, until Gold Star took over distribution of the merkin original/started their bre.

for-uk covered merkin issues

#13 November 1961 ukL 2.95
#14 January 1962 ukL 2.95
#15 March 1962 ukL 2.95
#16 May 1962
#17 July 1962
#18 September 1962

Gold Star Publications briefly published a bre consisting of merkin copies with re-dated six months on for-uk covers, in 1967, after which merkin copies were distributed in the uk by them (if at all; but at least through the March 1867 original merkin issue) until the magazine was bought by Universal Publications in 1969

Gold Star bre: five or six for-uk covered merkin issues redated (ten months on from them):

January (-February) 1967
March (-April) 1967
May (-June) 1967
July (-August) 1967
September (-October) 1967
[?] November (-December) 1967 [?]

Gold Star thereafter distributed the merkin edition in the uk (i don't know when they ceased doing so, but it's likely to've been until If & Galaxy were sold to Universal Publishing & Distribution Co. Inc. in autumn 1969, and the end of Frederik Pohl's editorship)

Universal-Tandem's bre was a for-uk recover of the merkin issue dated one month later, September 1969 (of the merkin original August 1969) through the end of 1970, with some uk advertisments replacing merkin ads, after which the original was distributed as a "joint edition"; both were distributed by New English Library's Magazine division.

If was now edited by Ejler Jakobsson, with Judy-Lynn Benjamin managing editor & Lester del Rey features editor; Jack Gaughan is listed as associate art editor

the Universal Publishing & Distribution original was then distributed (poorly) as a joint us & uk from end 1971 through April 1972;

October 1971 (cover) (September-October 1971 on masthead) "Vol.21 #1" "Issue 156" (front cover creased back 0.15" away from spine, else fair-good) ukL 3.95

(By this time renamed "Tandem Books Ltd.") Tandem again published and now also distributed (poorly) a bre consisting of the merkin original re-covered and re-numbered for the uk from mid 1972; but theirs was a re-numbering scheme most peculiar:
i list Tandem Books bre issue number - which enumeration was decidedly peculiar - and then the masthead months and year date, which are the same as those of the merkin originals, as are the "volume number issue number" & "whole number", as the carcasses of the two editions were identical:

1 (May-June 1972) "Vol.21 #5" #160"
2 (July-August 1972) "Vol.21 #6" "#161" ukL 3.95
2 (July-August 1972) "Vol.21 #6" "#161" (front cover creased open to c. 30 degrees from c. 0.5" from base of spine to top by spine, & c. 1" long across top fly corner, pages browning from edges, else fair) ukL 1.25
3 (September-October 1972) "Vol.21 #7" "#162" ukL 3.95
3 (September-October 1972) "Vol.21 #7" "#162" (pages browning from edges, else fair) ukL 1.95
4 (November-December 1972) "Vol.21 #8" "#163" (front & back covers creased c. 0.5" from spine, front cover creased open to c 80 degrees at spine, smaller creases; pages browning from edges; poor-rco) ukL 0.25
5 (January-February 1973) "Vol.21 #9" "#164" (c. 0.5" quarter-circular dent c. 2" from top fly corner front cover, pages browning from edges, else good) ukL 3.95
6 (March-April 1973) "Vol.21 #10" "#165"
7 (May-June 1973) "Vol.21 #11" "#166" (c. 2.5" light crease to top fly corner back cover, roughly parallel to top edge, pages browning from edges, else good) ukL 3.95
8 (July-August 1973) "Vol.21 #12" "#167"
9 (September-October 1973) "Vol.22 #1" "#168" (pages browning from edges, else good) ukL 3.95
11 (November-December 1973) "Vol.22 #2" "#169"
1 (January-February 1974) "Vol.22 #3" "#170" (last issue with Ejler Jakobsson listed as editor)
13 (March-April 1974) "Vol.22 #4" "#171" (first issue with James P. Baen listed as editor)
3 (May-June 1974) "Vol.22 #5" "#172"
4 (July-August 1974) "Vol.22 #6" "#173"
5 (September-October 1974) "Vol.22 #7" "#174"
probably the last bre issue
[?#6? ?#16? ?#17?] (November-December 1974) "Vol.22 #8" "#175"

i do not yet know whether this last issue of If saw a Tandem Books bre at all;
i did not receive my own subscription copy before Tandem Books Ltd. closed down their bre magazine operation, and possibly severed the last of their links with Universal Publishing & Distribution; i was sent it (and my last subscription copies of Galaxy) from UPD in New York when i wrote to complain; Arnold E. Abramson bothered to pen & sign an apology on the accompanying compliments slip, which i appreciated. (i started carrying in Single Step in Lancaster, Easter 1975, and distributed copies into Palatine Newsagents, Dave Britton's variously-named porno, SF, fantasy & horror shops & Grass Roots Bookshop (all in Manchester), partly because of his courtesy.)
it did not show up as a bre when the remnant copies (of both of their bre magazines) were remaindered, either.
Tim Kirk's cover for Richard E. Geis' Science Fiction Revier/The Alien Critic, of [i presume Alter] offering flowers on If's grave, sticks in my memory yet...
the title, "[Worlds of] If, was incorporated into that of Galaxy, which i believe both protected ownership of the title, and allowed If subscribers who did not opt out to have the balance of their subscriptions fulfilled with copies of this, also/very shortly edited by James P. Baen until he was hired back by Ace Books to rejuvenate their SF publishing (and set up & edit the SF paperback-zine, Destinies).