Score

Not a "well-known novel" but Dr. Leo Buscaglia wrote a book of fiction for children. He had a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California (1963). Novelist Booth Tarkington was offered an honorary Doctorate in Literature by Princeton University. Playwright Seamus Heaney was awarded two honorary doctorate degrees.

Was a law license equivalent to a J.D. degree? According to an Internet source, a J.D. degree is a requirement for a law license today. Lew Wallace, author of "Ben Hur," had a law license. So did Owen Wister, author of "The Virginian," and novelist Jules Verne.

P.J. wrote: "Not a "well-known novel" but Dr. Leo Buscaglia wrote a book of fiction for children. He had a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California (1963). Novelist Booth Tarkington was offered an honor..."

Thank you for inquiring! =) I removed the “well-known” qualifier as that was rather ambiguous but would prefer to keep the list to novels for adults. I would like to keep the list specific to doctorate degrees (Ph.D., M.D., J.D., etc.), not that there haven’t been different measures of academic achievement across time and cultures, but trying to determine what should be included or not seems especially thorny to me. No honorary degrees, only earned — which isn’t to take away anything from the recipients, but to my mind, there are much more appropriate and suitably prestigious awards for lifetime achievements, not least of which being the Nobel Prize in Literature which Seamus Heaney was also awarded.