Project Gutenberg
2008-10-10
Public domain in the USA.
5950
Keeler, Harry Stephen
1890
1967
Keeler, H. Stephen (Harry Stephen)
Keeler, Stephen
John Jones's Dollar
Produced from Amazing Stories April 1956 and was first published in Amazing Stories April 1927.
Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
"John Jones's Dollar" by Harry Stephen Keeler is a science fiction novel written in the early 20th century. Set in a futuristic world, the story revolves around the concept of compounding interest and its economic implications across centuries. The narrative is framed through a lecture delivered by a history professor in the year 3221 A.D., who discusses the historical significance of a single dollar deposited by a socialist named John Jones in 1921. The central plot focuses on John Jones and the extraordinary wealth that results from a seemingly mundane action: depositing a dollar in a bank with the stipulation of compounded interest over generations. As the narrative progresses, the professor elaborates on how this dollar grows astronomically over nearly a millennium, eventually leading to a dilemma faced by its descendants regarding the cumulative debt they would owe. The climax occurs when the last descendant's failure to produce an heir results in the state claiming the wealth, ultimately prompting a societal shift towards socialism. The book uses humor and fantastical elements to explore themes of economics, inheritance, and the impact of individual actions on future society. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Reading ease score: 59.2 (10th to 12th grade). Somewhat difficult to read.
en
Science fiction
Short stories
Compound interest -- Fiction
PS
Text
Science Fiction
Browsing: Literature
Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy
Browsing: Fiction
Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy
Category: Humour
Category: Novels
Category: American Literature
53110
2025-06-11T07:18:57.635123
text/html
48982
2021-01-04T05:44:00
text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
96053
2021-01-04T05:44:00
text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
application/zip
164583
2025-06-11T07:19:02.220085
application/epub+zip
163368
2025-06-11T07:18:59.645108
application/epub+zip
87152
2025-06-11T07:18:58.301155
application/epub+zip
340423
2025-06-11T07:19:04.038083
application/x-mobipocket-ebook
333234
2025-06-11T07:19:01.365131
application/x-mobipocket-ebook
153984
2022-09-12T11:43:11.236938
application/x-mobipocket-ebook
44617
2025-06-11T07:18:57.339115
text/plain; charset=us-ascii
44421
2021-01-04T05:44:00
text/plain; charset=us-ascii
17084
2021-01-04T05:44:00
text/plain; charset=us-ascii
application/zip
19585
2025-06-11T07:19:04.180081
application/rdf+xml
13706
2025-06-11T07:18:58.863106
image/jpeg
3452
2025-06-11T07:18:58.582085
image/jpeg
164775
2025-06-11T07:18:57.646108
application/octet-stream
application/zip
Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at
https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog
en.wikipedia