1960Dick Higgins1970Something Else PressJohn CageAl HansenClaes Oldenburg

1963Something Else Press1960Something Else Press1960

Store DaysNotationsEmmett WilliamsAn Anthology of Concrete PoetrySomething Else PressRichard KostelanetzBreakthrough FictioneersJackson Mac LowStanzas for Iris LezakGertrude SteinMatisse Picasso and Gertrude SteinBern PorterIve LeftWolf VostellD-coll/age HappeningsAl HansenA Primer of Happenings & Time/Space ArtRobert FilliouIan Hamilton FinlayAlison KnowlesNam June PaikPhilip CornerDaniel SpoerriAndr ThomkinsRichard MeltzerHugh Fox1973

A Something Else Readeris a previously-unpublished anthology edited by Dick Higgins in 1972 to celebrate Something Else Press, the publishing house he founded in 1963 to showcase Fluxus and other experimental artistic and literary forms.

The publication features selections from Claes OldenburgsStore Days, John CagesNotations,An Anthology of Concrete Poetry,Breakthrough Fictioneers, Jackson Mac LowsStanzas for Iris Lezak, Gertrude SteinsMatisse Picasso and Gertrude Stein, Bern PortersIve Left, Wolf VostellsD-coll/age Happenings, Al HansensA Primer of Happenings & Time/Space Art,and other projects for the page by Robert Filliou, Alison Knowles, Nam June Paik, Philip Corner, Daniel Spoerri, Andr Thomkins, and Richard Meltzer, among others. An annotated checklist assembled by Hugh Fox and Higginss unpublished introduction are also included.

Perhaps no other publisher in the 60s influenced artists books more than Something Else Press. Higgins had a firm vision that radical art could be housed in book form and distributed throughout the world and he worked endlessly to cultivate new works that challenged conventional notions of both contemporary art and books. While other presses created extraordinary publications, none were able to achieve the breadth of titles and artists like Higgins, who successfully ran Something Else Press until 1974 in a manner that resembled a more traditional paperback publisher.

Oddly, Higgins hadnt intended to publishA Something Else Readerhimself. Instead, in 1972, he assembled the table of contents and an introduction into a proposal that he then pitched to Random House. They eventually rejected the title and encouraged Higgins to publish it, but before he could do that, Something Else Press went out of business, and the dreams of the anthology evaporated. From there, the proposal went into Higginss archive, where it was found by scholar and curator Alice Centamore, who compiled the works and assembledA Something Else Reader.

Eleanor Antin, George Brecht, Pol Bury, Augusto de Campos, Clark Coolidge, Philip Corner, William Brisbane Dick, Robert Filliou, Albert M. Fine, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Hugh Fox, Buckminster Fuller, Eugen Gomringer, Brion Gysin, Richard Hamilton, Al Hansen, Jan J. Herman, Dick Higgins, ke Hodell, Ray Johnson, Allan Kaprow, Kitasono Katue, Bengt af Klintberg, Alison Knowles, Richard Kostelanetz, Ruth Krauss, Jackson Mac Low, Robert K. Macadam, Toby MacLennan, Hansjrg Mayer, Charles McIlvaine, Richard Meltzer, Manfred Mohr, Claes Oldenburg, Pauline Oliveros, Nam June Paik, Benjamin Patterson, Charles Platt, Bern Porter, Dieter Roth, Aram Saroyan, Tomas Schmit, Carolee Schneemann, Mary Ellen Solt, Daniel Spoerri, Gertrude Stein, Andr Thomkins, Wolf Vostell, and Emmett Williams are all included inA Something Else Reader.