Ace editor Donald A. Wollheim began this series in 1965 with co-editor Terry Carr (who would later launch the 'Ace Specials'), initially emphasizing a world-wide scope, with stories in the first volume by Joseph Nesvadba, Harry Mulisch, and Colin Free, though subsequent volumes drew material almost exclusively from genre sources. Beginning with the third volume, each story was decorated by a Jack Gaughn black and white illustration, and beginning with the fifth volume, the US Science Fiction Book Club published hardcover editions, as shown below. (The paperbacks in the photo are second printings with revised titles.) The series ended as both Wollheim and Carr left Ace, Wollheim to found DAW books, Carr to go freelance, each subsequently publishing his own best-of-year anthology series.
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World's Best Science Fiction: 1965, (Ace, 1965)
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World's Best Science Fiction: 1966, (Ace, 1966)
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World's Best Science Fiction: 1967, (Ace, 1967)
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World's Best Science Fiction: 1968, (Ace, 1968)
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World's Best Science Fiction: 1969, (Ace, 1969)
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World's Best Science Fiction: 1970, (Ace, 1970)
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World's Best Science Fiction: 1971, (Ace, 1971)
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Complete Contents by Author and Title
Brian W. Aldiss
Amen and Out
(1966)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1967
Full Sun
(1967)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1968
Total Environment
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
The Worm That Flies
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
Poul Anderson
Kyrie
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
Christopher Anvil
Bill for Delivery
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
The Captive Djinn
(1965)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1966
Paul Ash
The Wings of a Bat
(1966)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1967
Isaac Asimov
The Billiard Ball
(1967)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1968
Waterclap
(1970)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1971
Neal Barrett, Jr.
Greyspun's Gift
(1970)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1971
Gregory Benford
Nobody Lives on Burton Street
(1970)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1971
Ben Bova
Men of Good Will
(by BB & Myron R. Lewis)
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
Jonathan Brand
Vanishing Point
(1965)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1966
John Brunner
The Last Lonely Man
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
Terry Carr
The Dance of the Changer and the Three
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
Lin Carter
Uncollected Works
(1965)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1966
Arthur C. Clarke
Sunjammer
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1966
D. G. Compton
It's Smart to Have an English Address
(1967)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1968
Michael G. Coney
Sixth Sense
(1969)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1970
Whatever Became of the McGowans?
(1970)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1971
Avram Davidson
Bumberboom
(1966)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1967
Samuel R. Delany
Driftglass
(1967)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1968
Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
Philip K. Dick
Oh, to Be a Blobel!
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
We Can Remember It for You Wholesale
(1966)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1967
Thomas M. Disch
Now Is Forever
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
The Number You Have Reached
(1967)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1968
Roy Edwards
What Happened to Sergeant Masuro?, by Harry Mulisch
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
Gordon Eklund
Dear Aunt Annie
(1970)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1971
Suzette Haden Elgin
For the Sake of Grace
(1969)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1970
Harlan Ellison
A Boy and His Dog
(1969)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1970
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
(1967)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1968
"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman
(1965)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1966
Burt K. Filer
Backtracked
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
Colin Free
The Weather in the Underworld
(1965)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
Ron Goulart
Calling Dr. Clockwork
(1965)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1966
Confessions
(1970)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1971
The Sword Swallower
(1967)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1968
Joseph Green
The Decision Makers
(1965)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1966
H. B. Hickey
Gone Are the Lupo
(1970)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1971
H. H. Hollis
Sword Game
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
Edward Jesby
Sea Wrack
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
Gerald Jonas
The Shaker Revival
(1970)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1971
Norman Kagan
Four Brands of Impossible
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
Colin Kapp
Ambassador to Verdammt
(1967)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1968
The Cloudbuilders
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
Damon Knight
Masks
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
R. A. Lafferty
Continued on Next Rock
(1970)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1971
In Our Block
(1965)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1966
The Man Who Never Was
(1967)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1968
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
(1966)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1967
This Grand Carcass
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne
(1967)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1968
Jack B. Lawson
The Competitors
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
Fritz Leiber
The Good New Days
(1965)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1966
Ship of Shadows
(1969)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1970
The Square Root of Brain
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
When the Change-Winds Blow
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
Myron R. Lewis
Men of Good Will
(by Ben Bova & MRL)
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
Robert Lory
The Star Party
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
C. C. MacApp
For Every Action
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
Edward Mackin
The Unremembered
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
Katherine MacLean
Fear Hound
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
David I. Masson
Traveller's Rest
(1965)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1966
Bruce McAllister
And So Say All of Us
(1969)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1970
Michael Moorcock
Behold the Man
(1966)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1967
Harry Mulisch
What Happened to Sergeant Masuro?
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
Josef Nesvadba
Vampires Ltd.
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
Larry Niven
Becalmed in Hell
(1965)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1966
Bird in the Hand
(1970)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1971
Death by Ecstasy
(1969)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1970
Handicap
(1967)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1968
andrew j. offutt
Population Implosion
(1967)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1968
Alexei Panshin
One Sunday in Neptune
(1969)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1970
Dannie Plachta
The Man from When
(1966)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1967
Frederik Pohl
Day Million
(1966)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1967
Tom Purdom
Greenplace
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
Keith Roberts
Coranda
(1967)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1968
Therapy 2000
(1969)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1970
Fred Saberhagen
Masque of the Red Shift
(1965)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1966
Starsong
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
James H. Schmitz
Planet of Forgetting
(1965)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1966
Arthur Sellings
The Last Time Around
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1971
Bob Shaw
Invasion of Privacy
(1970)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1971
Light of Other Days
(1966)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1967
Robert Sheckley
Street of Dreams, Feet of Clay
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
Robert Silverberg
After the Myths Went Home
(1969)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1970
Going Down Smooth
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
Hawksbill Station
(1967)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1968
Ishmael in Love
(1970)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1971
Clifford D. Simak
Over the River and Through the Woods
(1965)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1966
The Thing in the Stone
(1970)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1971
Norman Spinrad
The Big Flash
(1969)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1970
Theodore Sturgeon
Slow Sculpture
(1970)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1971
William F. Temple
A Niche in Time
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
James Tiptree, Jr.
Your Haploid Heart
(1969)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1970
Iris Urwin
Vampires Ltd., by Josef Nesvadba
(1964)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1965
Sydney J. Van Scyoc
A Visit to Cleveland General
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
Vernor Vinge
Apartness
(1965)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1966
E. G. von Wald
Hemeac
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Welcome to the Monkey House
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
A. A. Walde
Bircher
(1966)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1967
Richard Wilson
A Man Spekith
(1969)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1970
See Me Not
(1967)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1968
Laurence Yep
The Selchey Kids
(1968)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1969
Roger Zelazny
For a Breath I Tarry
(1966)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1967
The Keys to December
(1966)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1967
The Man Who Loved the Faioli
(1967)
-- World's Best Science Fiction: 1968