Which publisher released the first British edition of The Lord of the Rings?

George Allen & Unwin released the first British edition of The Lord of the Rings.

The London publishing house had already published The Hobbit in 1937 and became Tolkien’s principal British publisher. It issued The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers in 1954, followed by The Return of the King in 1955.

The publisher’s chairman, Stanley Unwin, supported Tolkien’s work even though the manuscript was long and unusually demanding. The American publication history involved a different company, Houghton Mifflin, which is why answers can vary when a question does not specify Britain. George Allen & Unwin later became part of larger publishing groups, but its role in Tolkien’s original British editions is distinctive.