Which publisher released J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in Britain?

George Allen & Unwin released J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in Britain.

The publishing house had already issued The Hobbit in 1937, and its success made Tolkien's publisher interested in a follow-up. The Lord of the Rings was much longer and more complex than The Hobbit, so its publication required extended editing, production, and planning. The three volumes appeared between 1954 and 1955.

The first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring, was published in 1954, followed by The Two Towers later that year and The Return of the King in 1955. The company is sometimes shortened in references to Allen & Unwin. Its connection with Tolkien was especially important because the firm published both his breakthrough children's fantasy and his major Middle-earth epic. In 1977, the same publishing tradition also handled The Silmarillion after Tolkien's death.