Bennett Cerf, co-founder of Random House, published many greats of 20th-century letters. The biography “Nothing Random” looks at his life and the times that shaped him.

Now some of the late football honcho’s most prized possessions — Ringo Starr’s drums, Kurt Cobain’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” guitar, David Gilmour’s Black Strat — are going to auction. The sale ...