The first volume of C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia was published in 1950.
The opening Narnia book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, appeared in 1950. It introduced readers to the fictional land of Narnia, the Pevensie children, Aslan, and the White Witch. Lewis then published six further Narnia novels, completing the seven-book series in 1956.
The books were not originally released in the story’s internal chronological order. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was the first published book, while The Magician’s Nephew later became a prequel within the fictional history of Narnia. Some editions number the books differently because they use chronological order rather than publication order.
The 1950 publication date therefore refers specifically to the first appearance of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, not to the complete series or to the later film adaptations.