The story
Founded by Dick Higgins, in New York City.1
History
Background
Something Else was an early publisher of Concrete poetry and other works by Fluxus artists throughout the 1960s. During the 1960s in New York City some of the artists who worked at the Something Else Press included Editor-in-Chief Emmett Williams, artist Alison Knowles, poet Larry Freifeld, novelist Mary Flanagan, artist Ronnie Landfield, and publisher/founder Dick Higgins. Fluxus artist and scholar Ken Friedman acted as general manager for Higgins from California in 1970 and 1971. Originally located in Chelsea in Manhattan, the Something Else Press eventually relocated to West Glover, in northern Vermont in the 1970s.
Changes
While Higgins was always owner and publisher of the press, other individuals served as editor, including Emmett Williams and Jan Herman. Herman took the job in 1973 and served until the press folded a year later. Higgins is quoted as saying about Herman:
[T]oo much an editor, and too little a fund-raiser. His idea of doing business was to wrap books and mail them away – for that one has assistants (mailing books IS fun if one can afford the time) – and he spent too little time looking for production money from foundations and wealthy people. So the press went kaput the following year...
Since Higgins had personal wealth, this account could be disputed. The press collapsed when Higgins's fortunes turned, and there was virtually no funding base in rural Vermont.
Herman disputes Higgins' account.
1960s
Jefferson's Birthday/Postface – Dick Higgins – 1964
Ample Food For Stupid Thought – Robert Filliou – 1965
A Primer of Happenings & Time/Space Art – Al Hansen – 1965
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The Paper Snake – Ray Johnson – 1965
The Four Suits – Alison Knowles, Tomas Schmit, Benjamin Patterson, Philip Corner – 1965
DaDa Almanach – Richard Huelsenbeck – 1966
An Anecdoted Topography of Chance – Daniel Spoerri – 1966
The Making of Americans – Gertrude Stein – 1966
de-coll/age happenings – Wolf Vostell – 1966
Games at the Cedilla, or the Cedilla – George Brecht, Robert Filliou – 1967
Dick's 100 Amusements – William Brisbane Dick – 1967
Verbi-Voco-Visual Explorations – Marshall McLuhan – 1967
An Anthology of Concrete Poetry – Emmett Williams – 1967
Changes: Notes on Choreography – Merce Cunningham – 1968
The Book of Hours and Constellations – Eugen Gomringer – 1968
There's a Little Ambiguity Over There Among the Bluebells – Ruth Krauss – 1968
Store Days – Claes Oldenburg – 1968
246 Little Clouds – Dieter Roth – 1968
Geography and Plays – Gertrude Stein – 1968
Sweethearts – Emmett Williams – 1968
New Musical Resources – Henry Cowell – 1969
Notations – John Cage – 1969
The Gutman Letter – Walter Gutman – 1969
Foew and Ombwhnw – Dick Higgins – 1969
Lucy Church Amiably – Gertrude Stein – 1969
1970s
The Aesthetics of Rock – Richard Meltzer – 1970
The Mythological Travels of a Modern Sir John Mandeville, being an account of the Magic, Meatballs and other Monkey Business Peculiar to the Sojourn of Daniel Spoerri on the Isle of Symi, together with divers speculations thereon – Daniel Spoerri – 1970
Fantastic Architecture – Wolf Vostell, Dick Higgins – 1970
A Sailor's Calendar – Ian Hamilton Finlay, Gordon Huntly – 1971
Stanzas for Iris Leak – Jackson Mac Low – 1971
I've Left – Bern Porter – 1971
Thomas Onetwo – Ernest M. Robson – 1971
Typewriter Poems – ed. Peter Finch – 1972
A Book About Love And War And Death – Dick Higgins – 1972
1 Walked out of 2 and Forgot It – Toby MacLennan – 1972
Found Poems – Bern Porter – 1972
Matisse, Picasso and Gertrude Stein – Gertrude Stein – 1972
Cancer in My Left Ball – John Giorno – 1973
Brion Gysin Let the Mice In – Brion Gysin, ed. Jan Herman, William S. Burroughs, Ian Sommerville – 1973
Ring Piece – Geoffrey Hendricks – 1973
The Making of Americans – play by Leon Katz based on the book by Gertrude Stein – 1973
Breakthrough Fictioneers – ed. Richard Kostelanetz – 1973
One Thousand American Fungi (1902 edition) – Charles McIlvaine, Robert K. MacAdam – 1973
The Ten Week Garden – Cary Scher – 1973
A Book Concluding with As a Wife Has a Cow – Gertrude Stein – 1973
How to Write – Gertrude Stein – 1973
A Valentine for Noel – Emmett Williams – 1973
Bio-Music – Manford L. Eaton – 1974
Something Else Yearbook – ed. Jan Herman – 1974
From Wikipedia’s article on Something Else Press, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3