News at Eleven: [Kenneth M.] Price, a professor of American literature

at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, came to the National Archives expecting to find a few samples of Whitman's government work. Instead, he discovered a whole string of documents entirely in Whitman's handwriting.

"It was electrifying," Price said. "It's sort of your dream to find a trove of documents by a major writer."

The Whitman documents were in the letter books of the attorney general, which contained office copies of outgoing correspondence. They date from 1865 to 1872.

from McClatchy Newspapers: Letters reveal Walt Whitman's other job: Government clerk

~~~~~~~~~~~