James Edmondson, Sr. (June 10, 1910 – January 29, 1976), also known as Professor Backwards, was a vaudevillian/comedian who appeared on TV from the 1950s to the early 1970s, most notably on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, The Merv Griffin Show, The Dean Martin Show and The Mike Douglas Show. In addition to traditional stand-up comedy, Edmondson's act featured his ability to write in script that was upside down and/or backwards, spell and pronounce words backwards, and read an inverted blackboard correctly.

He was murdered on January 29, 1976, as part of an armed robbery.^[1][2]

• Professor Backwards at IMDb
• Packaging the Presidency, with a description of Edmondson's stand-up act
• Appeal to reverse convictions in Professor Backwards murder case (1977)
• Quotations from James Edmondson