Over the course of his long career as the author of 15 nonfiction books including “Little Pink House,” “Without Reservation” and “Poisoned,” Jeff Benedict has demonstrated an uncanny ability to explore interesting and compelling topics — and present them in a commercially successful fashion.

After all, the man is a serial bestseller.

It’s interesting, then, that Benedict recently spent five years, part- and full-time, researching and writing a book that, from the start, was never meant to be published.

It’s a memoir by Steve Young, ex-San Francisco 49ers quarterback and NFL Hall of Famer, and the sole purpose of the manuscript was so the athlete’s four children, who were born after he retired, would know about their father’s career and early life. And when Young broached the subject of a collaboration, he emphatically told Benedict, “This would NOT be for publication.”

It’s a January Monday morning, and Benedict is seated behind the desk of his home office. A Waterford native who lived for years in Virginia, Benedict and his family recently returned to Connecticut and this lovely Lyme farmhouse. Expansive windows reveal two red barns, giant birch trees and, across a country road, a bucolic, down-sloping meadow that eventually embraces the Connecticut River.

Floor to ceiling bookshelves are stocked with multiple copies of his books and, because the man is never not busy, dozens of neatly stacked manila folders are spread across the large desk and a banquet-sized adjacent table. Later, it will be revealed they contain interview transcripts for an unauthorized biography of Tiger Woods, which Benedict is writing with his friend, occasional collaborator and “60 Minutes” correspondent Armen Keteyian.

Benedict is dressed in a navy warm-up suit and cozy house slippers and, over the course of an hour’s conversation, he engagingly describes the story of his collaboration with Young and how the work, officially titled “QB — My Life Behind the Spiral,” ended up in bookstores. Benedict will discuss and sign copies of “QB — My Life Behind the Spiral” Monday at the East Lyme Public Library.

That the book happened at all was by chance. Benedict was writing a Sports Illustrated feature — he’s a longtime contributor — on NBA star Jabari Parker. Like Benedict and Young, Parker is a devout Mormon, and Benedict thought Young could offer an interesting and empathetic perspective on what it’s like to be a pro athlete committed to a faith shared by very few teammates.

“After we talked about Jabari, Steve said, ‘Let me ask you a question. Would you be interested in compiling and writing my life history?’ I was just silent. I didn’t know what to say. I mean, he’s Steve Young. Then he said, ‘You know, my kids never got to see me play. They don’t know much about a whole other life. I want them to be able to know what I did and what I went through. But it would just be for them,’” Benedict says.

Benedict says he thought for a moment and said, “Sure.” A month later, he flew to San Francisco to spend a typical day with Young and see if they felt the mutual chemistry that would be required to undertake such a task. Benedict was hopeful because, in addition to their Mormon roots, both grew up in Connecticut.

Benedict says, “That day, as I listened to Steve’s story, in my mind I was thinking, ‘Oh my God,’ ‘Wow!,’ ‘Holy Cow,’ ‘Whoa!’ over and over and over. And immediately, I felt like I’d known this guy my whole life. There was an immediate friendship connection. But, as a fan who’d followed his career since his days at Brigham Young, I was aware of something else.

“Everything he told me that day about his life and career — it was all new information. For 15 years, this guy was one of the most famous players in the NFL, and over the course of that whole day he didn’t describe one thing about his life that I knew. There are millions of fans who think they know him, but we don’t.”

In an email, Young says, “As with most things important, you have a gut feel for someone. Jeff was from Connecticut and also Mormon and I knew both things were a big part of my book. So having a great writer who understood so much of my story intuitively felt obvious. But in the end, there is just a connection on a personal level that you have to have. And that’s why I knew Jeff was the guy to write it with me.”

A spiraling story

As Benedict discovered, the book would be about a lot more than Young’s competitive spirit and athletic gifts. Perhaps Young’s greatest accomplishment might be another sort of triumph. Starting when he was a child and through college, he suffered massive separation anxiety that evolved into anticipatory anxiety as an adult. Though partially genetic in origin, the condition seemed to have no external cause that could be traced to a traumatic event in what was an otherwise happy childhood in a very close-knit family. Later, the anxiety was exacerbated with real and imagined pressure from, first, being a backup at Brigham Young to Jim McMahon and then, with the 49ers, to Joe Montana.

Young’s method of coping was essentially to get on the football field and compete. It was well into his pro career before Young finally saw a psychologist, Dr. Stanley Fischman, who diagnosed the athlete with the most pronounced case of separation anxiety he’d ever seen. That Young doesn’t drink, had never taken drugs or indeed sought medical help caused Fischman to tell his patient, “It’s remarkable that you are able to function at the level you do.”

“I knew going into the book that the anxiety was a big element,” Benedict says. “As a biographer, when you have someone else’s life in your hands on the page — even if it was simply for his family to read — how do you approach that?

“Each of us has our life’s narrative, and each narrative has a theme. My job is to follow that thread and, sitting with Steve, it was obvious that the anxiety was dominant. I worried about how to weave that into the story until it hit me. There was this amazing oil-and-water dichotomy in which he dealt with the anxiety with his athletic competitiveness. It was as though he was Clark Kent and put on a cape every Sunday. And I just thought, ‘How does that happen?’ It required amazing strength and will.”

Despite knowing the story would never be seen, Benedict was excited by the project. Throughout the process, he had access to an entire storage locker that contained journals, scrapbooks, keepsakes and memorabilia from Young’s life and career. He also conducted hundreds of interviews that originated with Young’s handwritten list of contacts and extrapolated as those folks suggested others.

“Steve was very helpful and involved throughout the whole process, and he was very good at providing context,” Benedict says. “I’d bring up facts, and Steve would say, ‘Yeah, and here’s what was going on behind the scenes.’ Plus, there were all those interviews from people who care about him and respect him. All of this played into why I think the book has the depth it has.”

Privately, Benedict grew increasingly convinced the book would be an inspirational and engrossing read for the public at large. “But,” he says, “I had to remember that this was his life and his book. That’s the rule, and that was our deal. I understood.”

Benedict smiles. “But every few months I’d bring it up again. The answer was always no. Eventually, though, the feedback Young was getting from trusted friends about the context of the interviews and the context of faith and the anxiety issue were making an impression.”

Eventually, Young agreed to seek a publisher and a contract was signed with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. “QB” came out last October, and the response has been almost completely positive and enthusiastic. The book is a tremendous read with a complex momentum. Though it’s told in Young’s first-person voice, Benedict came upon the idea to bounce back and forth between past and present tense. All of the on-field action — and there are dozens of beautifully emotive “you were there” sections that capture the brutality, speed and brotherhood of the NFL — is rendered in present tense; the background story and regular life anecdotes occur in past tense. It’s an effective technique, and Benedict captures Young’s voice, and its humility and kindness, in wonderful fashion.

“Jeff always felt it should be published and I always felt there was no way I’d do it,” Young says. “I just did it for my kids. But Jeff started to let close friends of both of us read some parts. I’d hear from these close friends. What they said led me to know that I really should publish it. I’m glad I did.”

Benedict and Young did an initial “QB” signing tour together, and Benedict is doing select dates, as with the East Lyme appearance, on his own. In addition to talking about the book, he’ll also talk about and show the trailer to the film version of “Little Pink House,” based on his story about the New London eminent domain case. The film makes its debut on Feb. 2 at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Indeed, with Benedict, he’s always busy with new books and projects. But the Young collaboration, he says, was special.

“I told my wife, ‘I don’t know that I can do better than I did on this one. This is the best I can do,’” he says.

IF YOU GO

Who: Jeff Benedict

What: New York Times bestselling author talks about the collaborative process with NFL Hall of Famer Steve Young in their new book, “QB — My Life Behind the Spiral.” Signed copies will be available for purchase.

When: 7 p.m. Monday

Where: East Lyme Public Library, 39 Society Road, Niantic

How much: Free; signed copies will be available for purchase; program registration required.

More info: (860)739-6926, eastlymepubliclibrary.org