September 07, 1998 On-line Forbes magazine

"WHEN DONALD FOSTER analyzes fingerprints in a criminal investigation, he doesn't head to the lab—he goes to the library. That is because Foster searches not for fingerprints, but for the patterns people leave in their writing. As the FBI's only forensic linguist, it is Foster's job to link authors and texts.

Foster, an English professor at Vassar College, honed his talent for identifying unknown authors by analyzing Shakespearean-era poems in search of the Bard's unattributed works. In February 1996 Foster pegged Joe Klein as the anonymous author of Primary Colors—his first sleuthing assignment outside academe. Before long he was analyzing notes in the Unabomber and the JonBenet Ramsey murder cases at the request of the FBI."