Pierre Berton, 1920-2004.

An incredibly prolific and always colorful Canadian journalist and popular historian, Berton died yesterday in Toronto. Berton's notable works of history are too numerous to list; personal favorites among his oeuvre would have to include the World War I battle chronicle Vimy, epic history Marching As to War: Canada's Turbulent Years, 1899-1953 and 1967: Canada's Turning Point (though its original subtitle - The Last Good Year - had a much better ring). As the Globe and Mail obit acknowledges, Berton was hardly an academic historian, but he was a peerless popularizer who'll surely be missed by good-hearted enthusiasts of Canadian history everywhere, myself included. AMDG.