The Lord of the Rings was first published in full in 1955. The novel appeared in three volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring in 1954, The Two Towers in 1954, and The Return of the King in 1955.
Although the work is one continuous novel, its publisher issued it in three volumes for practical and financial reasons. The final volume appeared in the United Kingdom on 20 October 1955, completing the initial publication sequence.
The 1955 date is therefore different from both the start of publication and the dates of later editions. The first volume followed The Hobbit by 17 years. Tolkien continued revising the text, and later editions incorporated corrections and changes based on his review of the published work.