Q: Why Did It Take So Long for Lord of the Rings to be Published?
ANSWER: In retrospect it may seem like a very long time from the publication of The Hobbit in 1937 to the publication of The Fellowship of the Ring in 1954 (17 years) but this time frame should be viewed as covering several periods in J.R.R. Tolkien’s life.
Tolkien began writing The Lord of the Rings in December 1937. After progressing through the first part of the story he paused for a while around 1942. It took him this long to write that much because he was writing in his spare time, in-between teaching seasons and when his other responsibilities permitted. He also had to cope with paper shortages due to the Second World War, and he had to work through some very engrossing challenges as he developed the story and added new layers of sophistication that were not included in The Hobbit.
Around 1944 Tolkien began writing in earnest again and he completed by the primary narrative of The Lord of the Rings by 1947, so it only took him about 10 years to complete the basic story. However, Tolkien’s publisher, George Allen & Unwin, balked at publishing such a long book. They had asked for a sequel to The Hobbit, thinking they would receive only a book of about that length. But now Tolkien had written something much longer and he was talking about bundling that story with both The Silmarillion and other texts. It was a very intimidating proposal.
Tolkien then entered a second period in which he had no publisher for the book, although he tried to sell it to Collins (which was eventually acquired by Harper, and HarperCollins eventually acquired George Allen & Unwin). During these years (from approximately 1948 to 1952) Tolkien worked on some of the narratives for his his re-imagined “Silmarillion” legends. In 1949 or 1950 he also began working on the materials for the appendices in The Lord of the Rings.
It was at this time that George Allen & Unwin surprised Tolkien by sending him the galley proofs for a second edition of The Hobbit (which they published in 1951). In 1947 Tolkien had sent some illustrative rewrites of portions of The Hobbit to George Allen & Unwin, suggesting that the book needed to be updated in order to make it more consistent with the story in The Lord of the Rings. He never heard back from them on the matter until they incorporated those changes into the second edition.
The unexpected Second Edition forced Tolkien to make changes to the background material he was preparing for The Hobbit, especially the narratives concerning the Dwarves. By 1952 Collins had proved to be a poor substitute for a publisher because they asked Tolkien to reduce the book significantly. He turned back to George Allen & Unwin, who by now were enjoying good sales of the revised Hobbit. Tolkien compromised on publishing the book by agreeing to divide it into three volumes, each to be published separately (The Fellowship of the Ring was published in July 1954, The Two Towers was published in November 1954, and The Return of the King was published in October 1955).
From about 1952 to 1954 Tolkien worked extensively on revisions and edits to the book, as well as revising and shortening the material intended for the appendices.
So, the short answer to your question is that it took Tolkien a long time to just write the book. But once it was finished it wasn’t really finished — it required considerably more rewriting and editing; and at the same time Tolkien had to come to terms with the realities of publishing in post-war Great Britain. The world was not yet ready for a 1200-page book.
# # #
Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
