J. W. Arrowsmith Ltd was a book printer and publisher based in Bristol, England. It became a limited company in 1911, having been an unincorporated company named Arrowsmith. It was closed in 2006.

The company published the first edition of the novel Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome in 1889.^[1] Also published by J. W. Arrowsmith were:

• Called Back by Hugh Conway (1883)
• Diary of a Pilgrimage by Jerome K. Jerome (1891)
• The Great Shadow by Arthur Conan Doyle (1892)
• The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith (1892)
• Rupert of Hentzau by Anthony Hope (1898)
• Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome (1900)

The business began in 1854 when Isaac Arrowsmith moved to Bristol from Worcester. Isaac Arrowsmith was a founder member of the Worcester Typographical Society.^[2] Arrowsmith and Hugh Evans, a stationer on Clare Street, published a railway timetable for a penny, an original copy of which is held at the British Museum.^[3] When Isaac died in 1871 his son, James Williams Arrowsmith, ventured into general publishing.^[3] Arrowsmith's first success came in 1883 with Hugh Conway's ‘Called Back’ was reviewed positively by Henry Labouchère in ’Truth’.^[3]

James Arrowsmith was a friend of the famous Bristolian cricketer, WG Grace, and published Grace's book entitled 'Cricket'.^[4] Their surviving letters show the process was not a smooth one:

Dear Arrowsmith,

It is very annoying to think you won’t do the little book as I wish. If you do it at all, why not properly? The specimen you have sent is too common a style.

Yours in haste,

WG Grace^[3]

In 1930 J W Arrowsmith printed the first of the Bristol Record Society's volumes, with transcriptions of historic records of Bristol, primarily material now held at Bristol Archives.^[3] During the Second World War the Arrowsmith's factory hosted seven local competitors whose sites had been destroyed.^[3] In 1952 a 27,000 square foot factory on Winterstoke Road, Bristol, was begun, finally alleviating the company's need to expand from the small, inadequate factory on Quay Street.^[3] Arrowsmith remains a publishing imprint.

• Arrowsmith's Bristol Library^[5][6][7]
• Arrowsmith’s Fiction Favorites (ca. 1924)
• Arrowsmith’s Fiction Series (1943-1948)^[8]
• Arrowsmith's Shilling Reprint Series
• Arrowsmith's Six Shilling Series
• Arrowsmith’s Three & Sixpenny Series (1892-1924)
• Arrowsmith’s 2/- Net Novels (1928-1941)^[9]
• Arrowsmith's Two Shilling Series^[5][10]
• Broad Arrow Thrillers (1937)

Most of the records of J. W. Arrowsmith Ltd are held at Bristol Archives (Ref. 40145) (online catalogue) along with copies of many Arrowsmith publications.