Which U.S. president had the best life after leaving the White House?

Leaving the job at fifty-something leaves a long time to fill. A few of them filled it better than they filled the office.

1

Jimmy Carter

Spent four decades monitoring elections, building houses and chasing Guinea worm, and won a Nobel for it in 2002.

2

Theodore Roosevelt

Shot a safari's worth of specimens in Africa, ran again in 1912 and then nearly died mapping an unknown Amazon river.

3

John Quincy Adams

Went back to the House for seventeen years and argued the Amistad case before the Supreme Court.

4

William Howard Taft

The only president to become Chief Justice, a job he wanted far more than the one before it.

5

Herbert Hoover

Ran the postwar famine relief effort in Europe and two commissions that reorganised the federal government.

6

Ulysses S. Grant

Toured the world to enormous crowds, went broke, and wrote a memoir on his deathbed that is still read.

7

Bill Clinton

Built a foundation and a second career as a global fundraiser and disaster envoy.

8

Thomas Jefferson

Founded the University of Virginia and designed its buildings in his seventies.

9

James Madison

Retired to Montpelier, helped Jefferson build his university and edited his own convention notes for publication.

10

George Washington

Went home to Mount Vernon and made the peaceful handover of power the country's founding habit.

11

Barack Obama

Wrote a bestselling memoir, built a production company and stayed a fixture of public life.

12

John Adams

Spent his last years writing an extraordinary correspondence with Jefferson, and died on the same Fourth of July.