On what date was The Fellowship of the Ring first published in Britain?

The Fellowship of the Ring was first published in Britain on 29 July 1954.

George Allen & Unwin issued the volume as the first part of The Lord of the Rings. It contains “The Foreword,” “Prologue,” and the first two books of the narrative, beginning with Bilbo Baggins’s birthday party and ending after the Fellowship reaches the mines of Moria and faces the Balrog.

The Lord of the Rings was published in three volumes for practical and economic reasons, not because Tolkien originally conceived it as a trilogy. The second volume, The Two Towers, followed later in 1954, while The Return of the King appeared in 1955.

The American publication history differed, and later editions often carried dates associated with reprints or revised texts. For that reason, the British first-publication date is the clearest specific answer when discussing the book’s original release.