J.R.R. Tolkien published The Return of the King, the final volume of The Lord of the Rings, in 1955.
The volume was published in the United Kingdom on 20 October 1955 by George Allen & Unwin. It follows the climactic struggle against Sauron, the destruction of the One Ring, Aragorn’s restoration as king, and the return of the hobbits to the Shire. The book also includes the appendices, which provide additional history, languages, genealogies, and chronology.
The Lord of the Rings was issued in three volumes for practical and economic reasons, not because Tolkien originally conceived it as a conventional trilogy. The Fellowship of the Ring appeared in 1954, followed by The Two Towers later that year. The Return of the King therefore completed the publication sequence in 1955.