Which company first published J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring in 1954?

Allen & Unwin first published J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring in 1954.

The book appeared in the United Kingdom on 29 July 1954 as the first volume of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien had conceived the work as a single long novel, but printing and publishing practicalities led to its release in three volumes. The second volume, The Two Towers, followed later in 1954, and The Return of the King appeared in 1955.

The publisher’s full name was George Allen & Unwin, the firm that had also published The Hobbit in 1937. Rayner Unwin, who had reviewed The Hobbit as a child, became an important link between Tolkien and the publishing house. American publication followed through Houghton Mifflin. The three-volume structure is not a trilogy of unrelated stories; it is the publishing division of one continuous narrative.