Grant Cottage, New York

After Ulysses S. Grant’s second term as president ended in 1877, he and his wife toured the world for two years, then returned to the United States, living in Manhattan, and to business investments that did not do so well. Diagnosed with throat cancer in 1884, he headed to a mountain cabin north of Saratoga Spring, New York, to write his memoirs, which his friend, Mark Twain, offered to publish with 75% of the profits going to Grant, to help him with his debts. Grant died just a few days after completing it, in 1885. The book ended up doing very well, and helped his heirs considerably. The cottage he wrote it in is now a state historic site, on grounds that lie behind the gates of a closed prison.