J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings was first published in a single-volume edition in 1968.
The Lord of the Rings originally appeared as three volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring in 1954, The Two Towers in 1954, and The Return of the King in 1955. Although the work is commonly called a trilogy, Tolkien regarded it as one novel that had been divided for publication and practical reasons.
A single-volume edition was eventually issued in 1968. This format helped reinforce the idea of The Lord of the Rings as one continuous narrative rather than three independent novels. Many later readers encountered the story in this combined form.
The date is often confused with the original publication years. The first volume appeared in 1954, the concluding volume in 1955, and the first one-volume edition came later, in 1968.