Catherine Besterman (née Katarzyna Lejtin) was a Polish-American children's author. Born on August 8, 1904, in Warsaw, Poland, Besterman worked as a journalist. She married fellow journalist Wladyslaw Besterman (1903–1974) in 1934. In 1941, during WWII, they fled Poland to the U.S. through Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro, with their 4-year-old son, Karol. They settled in Washington, D.C. where her husband worked as a press attaché for the Polish Embassy for the remainder of the war.
Before their departure from Poland, Besterman had considered adapting a Polish folktale for young readers. After arriving in the US, she decided to follow through, so she wrote her first book, The Quaint and Curious Quest of Johnny Longfoot, which was published in 1947. It was praised by The Horn Book Magazine, who included it in their Best Books of 1947 list, and then it was selected as a Newbery Honor title in 1948. She followed it up with a sequel titled The Extraordinary Education of Johnny Longfoot in His Search for the Magic Hat in 1949, though this did not get the same attention. Both books were illustrated by Warren Chappell.
Her husband had been a foreign correspondent for the United Press International in Warsaw from 1928–39. In the United States, where he anglicized his name to Walter Maurice, he worked as an immigration aide and then a diplomat. The couple later returned to Europe, where Walter worked for the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration and was a senior vice president with the Tolstoy Foundation. He died in Geneva in 1974.
She died in Europe in February 1985.
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