skribe 🇺🇦 
Anyone know why LOTRs has never been nominated for a Retro Hugo?
IanMoore3000@skribe it looks like the volumes were published in 1954 and 1955, meaning they would have been eligible for the non-retro 1955 and 1956 Hugo Awards.
Elyse M Grasso@skribe Retro Hugos are usually for works in years where there were no Hugos awarded. There may have been Hugos in all 3 relevant years for LOTR (There is no year for LOTR as a whole)
Michael Hanscom@skribe Works became eligible for Retro Hugos at 50, 75, or 100 years after their publication date if there were no Hugo awards nominated for their publication year (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award#Retro-Hugos).
As LOTR was published between 1954 and 1955 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings), that would have made the individual books eligible in 2004/2005, but they wouldn't have been eligible again until 2029/2030 or 2054/2055.
Retro Hugos started in 1996 and were optional; it was up to that year's Hugo committee as to whether or not they'd award them.
Noreascon 4 (2004's Worldcon) did award Retro Hugos for 1954; neither TFotR nor TTT were nominated (https://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/1954-retro-hugo-awards/). I can't speak to why (that was before I started paying attention to the Hugos); it's possible that they were nominated, but not in sufficient numbers to make the final ballot.
The Hugo award was awarded in 1955, so TRotK would not have been eligible for a Retro Hugo. Nominations for the 1955 Hugos are not listed on the award's official site, so I don't know if TRotK was nominated that year (https://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/1955-hugo-awards/).
This past year the Hugo awards were officially removed from the WSFS constitution, so no further Retro Hugos will be awarded.
@skribe Seeing @IanMoore3000's response above, my calculations may have been off by a year, but that doesn't really change much, other than that the regular Hugos were also awarded in 1956 (thus removing TRotK from Retro Hugo eligibility), and it looks like TRotK wasn't nominated that year either (https://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/1956-hugo-awards/).
@IanMoore3000 @djwudi I'm very surprised Tolkien hasn't even won the Infinity Award, given that he's no longer eligible to be named a Grand Master.