Which Tolkien book was published first among The Lord of the Rings volumes?

The Fellowship of the Ring was published first among J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings volumes.

George Allen & Unwin published it on 29 July 1954. It begins the story of Frodo Baggins’s mission to destroy the One Ring and covers the formation and early journey of the Fellowship.

The second volume, The Two Towers, followed later in 1954, and The Return of the King appeared in 1955. Although the work is commonly called a trilogy, Tolkien conceived it as one long novel divided into six internal books, plus appendices. Publishing constraints helped produce the familiar three-volume format.

The Fellowship of the Ring is sometimes mistaken for the whole title of Tolkien’s work because it is also the name of the first volume and the company formed at Rivendell. The Fellowship itself includes nine members, chosen to represent the Free Peoples and to oppose the nine Nazgûl.