Who published the first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings?

George Allen & Unwin published the first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

The British publishing house issued the work in three volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring in 1954, followed by The Two Towers and The Return of the King in 1955. Tolkien had written the story as a continuous work, but paper shortages and production costs encouraged publication in separate volumes.

The first volume appeared on 29 July 1954. The second followed on 11 November 1954, and the third was published on 20 October 1955. The three-volume structure later became familiar to generations of readers, even though the work is not technically a trilogy in the sense of three separate stories.

American publication involved Houghton Mifflin, which produced the first U.S. edition. This distinction matters: George Allen & Unwin was the original British publisher, while Houghton Mifflin handled the early American edition.