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From Joseph Nebus on rec.arts.sf.written
In the forward to _Wollheim's World's Best SF Series Two_, ``Formerly titled: The 1973 Annual World's Best SF'', editor Donald Wollheim talks about the state of the genre, as of First Printing May 1973's lead time:In the past year we have noted a rising tide of anthologies specializing in new stories --- stories written to order for a book editor, rather than for the magazine editors, who have hitherto provided the prime market for short stories and novelettes. In many cases these anthologies are being directed by obscurantists and produce volumes that do not measure up to the type of science fiction enjoyed by the majority of its faithful. Several of the new-story anthologies assume a periodic form ... and last year saw the demise of two of the most incomprehensible and offensively snobbish. But more of the same are likely to be coming into existence.
While it is of course impossible to tell what might be in a writer's mind, I do have the faint suspicion that Wollheim might be speaking out against the dread peril of the New Wave. (He does mention later on the 1972 publication of _Again, Dangerous Visions_, saying that it has too many pieces that are ``either incomprehensible or slight'' --- I'd go along with slight, but incomprehensible? --- but recommends the overall thing as a project, at least on the strength of Ellison's connective tissue.)
On the assumption that I have taken Wollheim's meaning correctly, what might the ``most incomprehensible and offensively snobbish'' anthologies which died in 1972 be?
