Jeffrey Sussman

Early life

Jeffrey was born in New York City. His father was a garment manufacturer, and his mother was a public relations official for the State of New York and then a fund raiser for major Jewish organizations.

Jeffrey is a graduate of New York University, where he majored in English and minored in film and education.

In 1964, he married Susan Hirschland, who subsequently took the name of her mother Bonnie Prudden, the physical fitness expert. Suzy Prudden specialized in infant and toddler exercise programs. She and Jeffrey co-wrote seven health and fitness books as well as two television programs. They operated a fitness and gymnastics studio in New York City from 1966 to 1981 and a sports camp in Bridgehampton, New York from 1970 to 1976. They have one son, Rob Sussman, who was married to Ricki Lake. Rob and Ricki have two sons and are now divorced. Jeffrey and Suzy divorced in 1981.

Career

From 1966 to 1969, while a college student, Jeffrey worked part-time as a secretary to Nobel Prize–winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer.

From 1976 through 1977, Jeffrey worked for the large public relations agency Edelman International, where he worked on behalf of Kentucky Fried Chicken, the governments of Mexico and Costa Rica, Pilot Pens, and the Manufactured Housing Association.

From 1981 to 1982, he was press secretary for Henry Stern, city councilman-at-large for New York City. Mr. Stern went on to serve as Commissioner of Parks & Recreation under Mayors Koch and Giuliani. He currently heads the good government group, New York Civic. In 1982, Jeffrey joined the marketing/PR firm of Zachary & Front, where he handled the Neighborhood Cleaners Association, several large law firms, and numerous food companies.

From 1988 to the present, Jeffrey has operated his own marketing/PR company, Jeffrey Sussman Inc. For twelve years, he taught a marketing/PR course at The New School University in Manhattan. He has lectured at the YMHA as well as for the United States Department of State to companies that want to open businesses in the U. S. In addition to the seven health and fitness books he wrote with his former wife, Jeffrey is the author of four other non-fiction books: How to Sleep Without Drugs; Power Promoting: How to Market Your Business to the Top! and No Mere Bagatelles, a biography of handbag designer and Holocaust survivor Judith Leiber. Mrs. Leiber’s handbags are in major museums throughout the United States. Beginning in 1953, she has designed handbags for each First Lady to carry to her husband’s presidential inauguration. Her handcrafted, artful handbags are in the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Corcoran Galleries, and the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, Virginia. His most recent book is Max Baer and Barney Ross: Jewish Heroes of Boxing.

Non-fiction Books

1. Suzy Prudden's Creative Fitness for Baby & Child *
2. Suzy Prudden’s Family Fitness Book*.
10 3. Fit For Life*
11 4. See Hot They Run*
12 5. Spot Reducing*
6. Suzy Prudden Pregnancy & Back to Shape Exercise*
7. I Can Exercise Anywhere*
8. How to Sleep Without Drugs
9. Power Promoting: How to Market Your Business to the Top!
10. No Mere Bagatelles.
11. Max Baer & Barney Ross: Jewish Heroes of Boxing.

(*co-authored with Suzy Prudden. (Jeffrey Sussman provided the photographs for books 1, 2, 3 and 4))

Novels

1. Alone
2. The Smart Ass