The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was first published in 1950.
British author C. S. Lewis’s novel was published in the United Kingdom by Geoffrey Bles on 16 October 1950. It introduced readers to Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie, who discover a magical passage to Narnia through a wardrobe while staying in the countryside during wartime evacuation.
The book was the first Narnia novel written and the first one published. Modern editions sometimes label it volume two because they arrange the series according to Narnian internal chronology, placing The Magician’s Nephew first. That numbering can cause confusion, but it does not change the publication year.
The novel became the best-known entry in Lewis’s seven-book series. Prince Caspian followed in 1951, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader appeared in 1952. The first American edition also appeared in 1950, with several textual changes from the original British edition.