J.R.R. Tolkien received the International Fantasy Award for The Lord of the Rings in 1957.
The award recognized the completed three-volume work as a major achievement in imaginative literature. The Lord of the Rings had been published in the United Kingdom in three volumes between 1954 and 1955, so the award came after the full story was available.
The International Fantasy Award was presented at the annual World Science Fiction Convention, held in London in 1957. Tolkien did not attend the ceremony; his friend C.S. Lewis accepted the award on his behalf.
This honor is sometimes confused with later literary recognition, including Tolkien's appointment to the Order of the British Empire in 1972 and the publication of The Silmarillion in 1977. The 1957 award was an early sign of the novel's growing influence in modern fantasy.