He spent 1956 to 1957 at The American Academy in Rome and in September 1957 went to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he remained for the rest of his career.

Widely regarded in its time as a central work of literary theory, Else's other important contribution is The Origin and Early Form of Greek Tragedy, which was published in 1965.

Up to Else's time, Aristotle's concept of catharsis was almost exclusively associated with the reading of Jakob Bernays who defined it as the "therapeutic purgation of pity and fear.

"[4] In a convincing manner, Else refined this definition to understanding literary catharsis as, "that moment of insight which arises out of the audience's climactic intellectual, emotional, and spiritual enlightenment, which for Aristotle is both the essential pleasure and essential goal of mimetic art.

The volume is notable for the inclusion of the biography on Else by Burian included in the prefatory section of the book., pp xi-xvi.