At an early age Benners showed an affinity for the literary arts but was not much interested in working at his family's lumber business.
At ten he wrote his first poem and at 25 began writing some serials for George Munro's New York Fireside Companion and later for the Chicago Ledger.
It was when Benners was about thirty that he began his "vast letter correspondence with the popular writers of the day" according to Ralph Adimari, a dime novel historian.
[3] The romance novelists Emma Burke Collins, Alex McVeigh Miller and Mary R. Estey were his most faithful correspondents.
After his death the bulk of Benners's correspondence was destroyed by his nieces because of concern over their personal (read: sexual) content.
When Ralph Cummings gave me part of the William J. Benners collection, at least one-third of the notes were devoted to Clay-Brame productions and in many letters to others he lauds her stories to the skies."
The papers consist of: letters to Benners from family members, various authors, and publishers; fragments of dime novel manuscripts; several research and accounting notebooks; and miscellany such as scrapbooks and photos.