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Thousands Of Walt Whitman Documents Discovered

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Thousands of documents apparently written by former Camden resident Walt Whitman have been discovered in our nation's capital.

Kenneth Price, a professor at the University of Nebraska, is a Whitman expert. He said he spent hours upon hours of searching through national archives and found 3,000 previously unidentified pages in the poet's handwriting.

"These documents were all from his work with the attorney general's office between 1865 and 1873," Price said.

But only a handful had Whitman's name written on them.

"I could recognize his handwriting the way somebody else could recognize the handwriting of a member of their own family."

Price said many of the pages will be scanned and posted on his website.

Reported by Mike Dougherty, KYW Newsradio 1060

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