From an AP obit headlined “Thomas Cahill, popular history writer, dead at 82”:

Thomas Cahill, a scholar of ancient languages and belief systems with a knack for popular storytelling who engaged history readers with such bestsellers as “How the Irish Saved Civilization” and “Desire of the Everlasting Hills,” has died at age 82.

Travis Loller, a family friend and Associated Press writer, says that Cahill died in his sleep Oct. 18 at his apartment in Manhattan.