Which Tolkien novel was published first on 29 July 1954 as the first volume of The Lord of the Rings?

The Fellowship of the Ring was published first on 29 July 1954 as the opening volume of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The book introduces Frodo Baggins’s mission to carry the One Ring away from the Shire.

The volume is divided into two books. It begins with the long-delayed departure from Hobbiton and continues through Rivendell, where representatives of several peoples form the Fellowship of the Ring. Their purpose is to take the Ring toward Mordor, where it can be destroyed.

The title can cause confusion because the Fellowship is a group within the story rather than the name of the entire novel. The complete work was issued in three volumes for practical publishing reasons, not because Tolkien originally conceived it as a conventional trilogy. The second volume is The Two Towers, and the third is The Return of the King.