At 88, historian David Levering Lewis, a biographer of W.E.B. DuBois, has filled in gaps in his knowledge of his own family line, and he takes readers along on the journey.

During Sepp Straka’s junior season at the University of Georgia in 2013-14, he struggled so mightily that he failed to qualify for the men’s golf team. A bad case of the chipping yips forced ...