At a first glance, Mathematics and Literature look like two completely unrelated subjects.
I wonder whether there are examples of acclaimed mathematicians which wrote novels, poems, or other literary works not related to mathematics.
EDIT. Following a request by HDE 226868, I invite all the answerers to give some more details about the author and the cited literary works, whenever possible. Thanks to all of you.
Bertrand Russell wrote many books and essays on philosophy and social justice, and was awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature.
And the Persian mathematician Omar Khayyám wrote poetry: quatrains that have been translated into English as the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.
Hausdorff wrote many literary and philosophical works, including poems and a play, under the pseudonym Paul Mongré.
Many mathematicians wrote their autobiographies, see the answers to https://mathoverflow.net/questions/102597/history-question-autobiography-of-mathematicians/102676#102676
Quite a few also have engaged in writing literary fiction.
For example, Sofya Kovalevskaya (apart from memories about her childhood) wrote a novel: Nihilist Girl, translated by Natasha Kolchevska with Mary Zirin ; introduction by Natasha Kolchevska. Modern Language Association of America (2001) ISBN 0-87352-790-9.
Kovalevskaya also collaborated with Anne Charlotte Leffler on a play (according to the Wikipedia page of Leffler, the title is The struggle for happiness).
In our times, Michèle Audin, known for her achievements in symplectic geometry, is a member of Oulipo.
She recently published a novel: La formule de Stokes, roman, Cassini, 2016, 297 p. (ISBN 9782842252069) However, in view of the preferred mode of creation by Oulipo, this work may be not entirely unrelated to mathematics. It is a novel, though, not a scholarly or popularizing work.
Some other examples can be found among answers to this question:https://mathoverflow.net/questions/45185/pseudonyms-of-famous-mathematicians/62966#62966
The mathematician E. T. Bell (known for Bell numbers, and the first stirrings of umbral calculus) wrote many science-fiction novels under the name John Taine. Arthur C. Clarke considered John Taine one of his heroes. (According to Constance Reid's The Search for E. T. Bell: also known as John Taine, which is a wonderful work of history/biography.)
Several mathematicians wrote excellent recollections about their own life. Some of them are of high quality as literature. My favorite ones are by Weyl, Rudin and L. Schwartz.
David Ruelle (a famous mathematical physicist) wrote some philosophical fiction.
The Romanian mathematician Dan Barbilian was better known as the modernist poet Ion Barbu. It's interesting that the English wikipedia page deals mostly with his mathematical research. Also it is worth mentioning that he was the first to introduce Modern Algebra (a la Van der Waerden) in Romania.
The mathematician Jordan Ellenberg (University page, personal website, Wikipedia article, blog) wrote a novel called The Grasshopper King in 2003. Does this satisfy your criteria?
Rudy Rucker writes science fiction. Some of his novels explore mathematical concepts such as infinity. Ian Stewart, who is best known for his popular science and mathematics books (including the Science of Discworld books), has also written a couple of science fiction novels with Jack Cohen.
An obscure one, perhaps.
Emanuel Lasker cowrote Vom Menschen die Geschichte ("History of Mankind"), a play, with his brother in 1925. He has other works, although at least part of those were related to mathematics and game theory with his prediction in "Kampf" (Struggle) of a social science of the future. In many ways this foresaw the application of game theory in the social sciences.
Donald Knuth wrote a novel about surreal numbers (and he coined the term): "Surreal Numbers: How Two Ex-Students Turned on to Pure Mathematics and Found Total Happiness".
Needless to say, Alexander Grothendieck (1928-2014) was one of the greatest (and perhaps the most visionary) mathematician of the XX century.
In 1987-88 he wrote a manuscript entitled “La Clef des Songes - ou Dialogue avec le Bon Dieu” (which can be translated as “The key of dreams - or conversation with the good Lord”).
The manuscript consist of 6 chapters, 315 pages, plus hundreds of pages of added notes. It describes Grothendieck's arrival at the conviction of the existence of God, through his discovery of the meaning and significance of dreams. It also contains a wealth of personal biographical details on his early childhood, on the period spent in a French internment camp for undesirables during World War II and then in the Protestant foyer for Jewish children in Le Chambon sur Lignon, and on his parents. [source]
Lewis Carroll, a logician, wrote Alice in Wonderland. Probably the best selling work of fiction by a mathematician ever.
Sofya Kovalevskaya wrote a Russian Childhood where she mentions how she was inspired to learn mathematics by the wallpaper in her bedroom. It had been papered over by the pages of a textbook. She also mentions how she was annoyed by Dostoyevsky.
The Irish mathematician and physicist, Hamilton wrote poetry, but was advised by his friend, Wordsworth, to stick to maths and physics.
Mathilde Marcolli who has worked with Alain Connes on Non-Commutative Geometry has written a series of anarchist/dada inspired texts. She's also working on a book investigating the notions of spatiality in mathematics and art.
David Brin who trained as an astrophysicist wrote The Postman, a science-fiction classic but which was made into a terrible film.
Pierre de Fermat wrote a 101-line hexameter poem in Latin that was recently translated into English.
Georg Cantor wrote a religious text:
EX ORIENTE LUX. Gespräche eines Meisters mit seinem Schüler über wesentliche Punkte des urkundlichen Christentums. Berichtet vom Schüler selbst Georg Jakob Aaron, cand. sacr. theol. Erstes Gespräch. Herausgegeben von G. Cantor, Halle 1905.
Light from the East. Talks of a master with his pupil about the essential points of the original Christianity. Reported by the pupil himself.
The essay concludes with a refusal of Catholicism: "It remains until the end of all days resting on an unshakeable rock, Christ himself: the invisible church, which He has founded. He is the Lord who does not need a governor on earth."
An Essay about the true author of Shakespeares works Cantor wanted to start with the following autobiographical peom as an introduction:
Allen stets zu gefallen ist Loos nur den Kindern Fortunens,
Wen'gen Erlesenen, ach, selten glückt's dem Verdienst;
Niemandem recht es zu machen, von Allen geschmäht und verhöhnt sein,
Bitter trägt dies der Mann, schmerzvoll entsagend das Weib.
Dennoch, verweigern die Götter grausam die Gunst mir des Mittlern,
Steh' ich und habe die Wahl, nur von den Aeussersten Ein's:
Einsam unentwegt folg ich den Spuren der Wahrheit,
Freudig verzichtend hinfür jeglichem Beifall der Welt.
[H. Meschkowski, W. Nilson (eds.): Georg Cantor Briefe, Springer, Berlin (1991), p. 418]
By the way, Cantor was also an excellent painter. See section 4 here.
Christos Papadimitriou collaborated with Apostolos Doxiadis (who had written Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture (2000)) to write the graphic novel Logicomix: An epic search for truth (2009). As the Amazon page describes it,
This story is at the same time a historical novel and an accessible explication of some of the biggest ideas of mathematics and modern philosophy. With rich characterizations and expressive, atmospheric artwork, the book spins the pursuit of these ideas into a highly satisfying tale.
Greg Egan is a hard science fiction writer (Permutation City, Oceanic, Distress etc.), he also does some interesting computer science programming/research and he has collaborated with John Baez on many projects.
Fiction - https://www.gregegan.net
Math research - https://www.gregegan.net/BIBLIOGRAPHY/Online.html#NonFiction
Jacques Dixmier published two books of short stories in science fiction, L'Aurore des dieux (1993) and Le Septième arrhe (1995).
And one more co-authored with Alain Connes and Danye Chéreau: Le Spectre d’Atacama (2018); recently reviewed by @Gro-Tsen.
David Bessis published a novel (Sprats, 2005) and a "sentimental atlas" (Ars grammatica, 2006).
Recommended: Michèle Audin, La Formule de Stokes, roman (2016), already mentioned in this thread; gave me several fits of the giggles in the past hour.
Errett Bishop penned the following intriguing poem, cited here:
Formalism. The devil is very neat. It is his pride// To keep his house in order. Every bit// Of trivia has its place. He takes great pains// To see that nothing ever does not fit.// And yet his guests are queasy. All their food,// Served with a flair and pleasant to the eye,// Goes through like sawdust. Pity the perfect host!// The devil thinks and thinks and he cannot cry.
He is not a mathematician per se, but J.M. Coetzee studied mathematics at university and worked as a computer programmer when he was younger. He is probably the most mathematically minded person to win the Nobel Prize in Literature and has won the Man Booker Prize on multiple occasions.
James Clerk Maxwell also wrote poetry. Hamilton was at one point spending quite a significant amount of time on poetry until his friend William Wordsworth advised him to focus on his strengths and not dedicate too much time to literature.
Emanuel Lasker is better known as a world chess champion, but he was a mathematician too. David Hilbert was one of his doctoral advisors and he published at least four mathematical articles. And he also wrote a drama, Vom Menschen die Geschichte (together with his brother Berthold), as well as several philosophical books.
Norbert Wiener wrote the 1959 novel The Tempter, which I have a vague memory of having unsuccessfully tried to read in one point in my life.
José Echegaray was a brilliant Spanish mathematician, and also won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1904... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Echegaray
