diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 671462ebf..9b03a4fc8 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@ changes in sbcl-0.9.10 relative to sbcl-0.9.9:
     certain complicated string types.  (reported by Gary King)
   * fixed bug: STRING-TO-OCTETS and OCTETS-TO-STRING did not convert
     character codes.  (thanks to Yaroslav Kavenchuk and Ivan Boldyrev)
+  * fixed bug: DOCUMENTATION on structures no longer signals an 
+    error if no structure type of the right name exists.  (reported by
+    Glenn Ehrlich)
 
 changes in sbcl-0.9.9 relative to sbcl-0.9.8:
   * new platform: experimental support for the Windows operating
diff --git a/src/pcl/documentation.lisp b/src/pcl/documentation.lisp
index cd8e592c9..08ef1979b 100644
--- a/src/pcl/documentation.lisp
+++ b/src/pcl/documentation.lisp
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@
         ((info :typed-structure :info x)
          (values (info :typed-structure :documentation x)))
         (t
-         (error "~S is not the name of a structure type." x))))
+         nil)))
 
 (defmethod (setf documentation) (new-value
                                  (x structure-class)
@@ -187,7 +187,7 @@
         ((info :typed-structure :info x)
          (setf (info :typed-structure :documentation x) new-value))
         (t
-         (error "~S is not the name of a structure type." x))))
+         nil)))
 
 
 ;;; variables
diff --git a/tests/interface.pure.lisp b/tests/interface.pure.lisp
index 2a27b35b5..df8ee36cf 100644
--- a/tests/interface.pure.lisp
+++ b/tests/interface.pure.lisp
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@
 (documentation 'fixnum 'type)
 (documentation 'class 'type)
 (documentation (find-class 'class) 'type)
+(documentation 'foo 'structure)
 
 ;;; DECODE-UNIVERSAL-TIME should accept second-resolution time-zones.
 (macrolet ((test (ut time-zone list)
diff --git a/version.lisp-expr b/version.lisp-expr
index a3f3b13c7..3c0c9de91 100644
--- a/version.lisp-expr
+++ b/version.lisp-expr
@@ -17,4 +17,4 @@
 ;;; checkins which aren't released. (And occasionally for internal
 ;;; versions, especially for internal versions off the main CVS
 ;;; branch, it gets hairier, e.g. "0.pre7.14.flaky4.13".)
-"0.9.9.8"
+"0.9.9.9"