Officials at Louisiana Tech are calling it a once in a lifetime discovery. A professor stumbles upon a letter written by Charles Dickens -- a letter scholars around the world never knew existed.

For 12 years, Dr. Rick Simmons has studied his passion -- 19th century British Literature. Studying documents goes with the territory of teaching. But after studying some handwritten letters by Charles Dickens, which are on loan from an alumni family, Simmons made a startling discovery.

A call to a dickens expert in Ireland confirmed that scholars never knew this letter had ever existed:

Boston 22, February 1868 I have received your earnest letter with much gratitude and esteem it as a very high privilege to be so addressed. Accept my thanks and the assurance of my sympathy. Faithfully yours, Charles Dickens