William J. Benners

William James Benners Jr. (1863–1940) was a writer, publisher and historian of dime novels, which was a class of popular fiction that flourished in the mid- and late-nineteenth century and into the early twentieth century. Benners was also a poet, actor and an avid traveler who maintained correspondence with many dime novel authors, and aimed to compile a directory of popular writers and bought and sold stories and publishing rights, and also penned some dime novels of his own.

Biography Benners was born in Philadelphia on September 27, 1863, the son of William Sr. and Frances Ann. He had two brothers, Harry H. and A. Eugene, and a sister, Novella. 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.

Benners was an avid reader of dime novels from age eight and read romance novels later in life. 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. His professional writing career did not last long, but he was a devoted letter writer for much of his life. 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.

The romance novelists Emma Burke Collins and Alex McVeigh Miller 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. Ralph F. Cummings, the Dime Novel Round-Up editor, who nursed Benners in his last years and referred to the man as Uncle Billee, wrote to Adimari that Benners's nieces "didn't believe in his letters falling into other hands. They were putting stuff on the fire when I discovered what they were doing. I sure was lucky to get what I really did."

Family Ralph Adimari notes that "Benners had many sweethearts he never married". He was engaged to Laura Jean Libbey, a romance writer, from 1891 to 1893,