Which literary award did The Lord of the Rings win in 1957?

The Lord of the Rings won the International Fantasy Award for fiction in 1957.

The International Fantasy Award was an early prize for fantasy and science fiction. Tolkien received the fiction award for The Lord of the Rings at the 1957 ceremony, helping confirm the work’s importance beyond its commercial success. The prize was awarded during the period when the trilogy was gaining a major international readership.

This award is sometimes confused with later honors associated with Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings did not win the Hugo Award in 1957, and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards were established much later. Tolkien’s novel also received significant recognition in reader polls and retrospective lists, but those are different from the International Fantasy Award.