In what year was The Fellowship of the Ring first published? 1954. J. R. R. Tolkien’s first volume of The Lord of the Rings was published in the United Kingdom on 29 July 1954 by George Allen & Unwin.
Tolkien originally conceived The Lord of the Rings as a single, large work rather than a conventional trilogy. Publishing economics and production difficulties led the publisher to issue it in three volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. The first volume contains Books I and II, along with a foreword and the famous prologue about hobbits.
The year 1954 can be confused with the publication dates of the later volumes. The Two Towers also appeared in 1954, on 11 November, while The Return of the King followed in 1955. The first U.S. edition of The Fellowship of the Ring was published later that same year, on 21 October.