J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings was first published in one-volume form in 1968.
The novel originally appeared in three volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring in 1954, The Two Towers in 1954, and The Return of the King in 1955. Tolkien considered it a single continuous work, even though publishing and production arrangements led to the familiar three-volume format.
A one-volume edition was issued in 1968. This edition helped reinforce the idea that the story should be read as one unified epic rather than as three independent novels. It also appeared after major paperback editions had expanded the book’s readership, especially in the United States.
The 1968 date is distinct from the dates of the original volumes. The Silmarillion, another major Tolkien work, was published posthumously in 1977 and is not a one-volume edition of The Lord of the Rings.