On what date was J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring first published?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring was first published on 29 July 1954.

The Fellowship of the Ring is the first volume of The Lord of the Rings. It was published in the United Kingdom by George Allen & Unwin, with the second volume, The Two Towers, following later in 1954 and the third, The Return of the King, in 1955.

Tolkien had originally conceived the work as a sequel to The Hobbit, but it grew into a much larger narrative. Its opening follows Bilbo’s birthday party, Frodo’s inheritance of the One Ring, and the formation of the Fellowship.

The book’s first edition was divided into two internal books, a structure Tolkien used throughout the trilogy. The three-volume format was also influenced by practical publishing considerations rather than by Tolkien’s original plan for separate novels.