Prix Bouchard

The Bouchard Prize (Prix Bouchard) was an honor awarded annually by the Bouchard Society for the year's best work of fiction by a European author.

Hermès Bouchard established the prize in 1909 at the urging of his wife, Marie-Hélène Bouchard, a voracious reader and noted book collector who also served as the chair of the judging committee. Winners received a prize of 50,000 Fr and were fêted throughout the following year at private events hosted by influential European families.

The 1912 award ceremony was held in Chamonix. Instead of Straka, a capuchin monkey appeared on the dais with a note pinned to its jacket from Straka. It is unknown where the monkey came from, what happened to it afterward. According to accounts, Marie-Hélène retrieved and read the note and collapsed on the daist.

There are conflicting accounts about the contents of the note: allegedly it stated that literature prizes were anathema to art, treating writers as if they were dancing monkeys ("you seek a world populated by trick-monkeys who dance to your tunes for the empty promise of coins"). According to Hermès the note said that Straka refused the prize because he found no joy in receiving prizes. F. X. Caldeira however disputed those accounts, asserting that the note accused Hermès for orchestrating the massacre in the earlier Calais Riot. (The note was last seen in 1983 in the Munich archive.)

In October Marie-Hélène commited suicide. The Society was disbanded, and the prize was discontinued.

Recipients

 * 1909: Latimer Tasse (France) for Il rêve en garance rose
 * 1910: Sigrid Bang (Norway) for Min Kval
 * 1911: Flavio Scagnelli (Italy) for La Mongolfiera d'oro
 * 1912: V. M. Straka (unknown) for Miracle at Braxenholm (declined)