Discuss Letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Mrs Frost on 14 May 1955

Thanks for the link to this very interesting new research! I have added the link and some additional information from it to our letter summary now.

For what (little) it's worth: That's not an "A" before "L. C. Beckett Frost" on the envelope. I think it is a somewhat hastily formed "Mrs."

Aelfwine wrote:

For what (little) it's worth: That's not an "A" before "L. C. Beckett Frost" on the envelope. I think it is a somewhat hastily formed "Mrs."

Is it possible that Tolkien was writing "On." (Italian abbreviation for Onorevole, "Honourable" title)?

Urulókë wrote:

Is it possible that Tolkien was writing "On." (Italian abbreviation for Onorevole, "Honourable" title)?

I don't think so. I think the loop on the left is a flourish Tolkien that sometimes makes when starting to write a capital letter, here "M"; this merges into an "r" that looks like little more than an ascender, because the arm of the "r" in turn merges with what I call his "s-curl" (which is often all there is to indicate a final "s").

In fact, you see this same sort of formation, only less cramped, in the greeting of the letter proper.