DAUDET (Léon). [Manuscript]. The Total War. 1918. Manuscript in-folio with 32 lines on a beautiful page of 1 title leaf and 170 ff. Jansenist blue morocco, red morocco lining framed with a triple gilt fillet, moiré and dominoté endpapers, spine ribbed, untrimmed, case (Semet & Plumelle). Autograph manuscript dated 27 March 1918 signed by Léon Daudet. First appearance of the expression "Total War" which will flourish in the 20th century, defined by the author in his eponymous essay published in 1918 : "It is the extension of the struggle, in its acute as well as in its chronic phases, to the political, economic, commercial, industrial, intellectual, legal and financial domains...". In 1918, Léon Daudet, 51, was editor-in-chief of the Action Française newspaper he had founded with Charles Maurras ten years earlier; since 1912, the violent anti-Dreyfusard, royalist and anti-Semitic polemicist had been organising the trial of "defeatism and treason" through the press, denouncing an alleged infiltration of business and political circles by agents in the pay of Germany. He was convicted of libel in 1913 but continued his campaign at the Nouvelle Edition Française. La Guerre totale (Total War), written and published in the last year of the conflict, conceptualised the editorialist's vision under a title intended to make a lasting impression. The last handwritten copy still retouched by the author, Léon Daudet included in his text numerous press cuttings and typescript passages that the publisher reproduced in full in the 1918 publication (pagination and editorial notes in blue pencil); on the other hand, three passages were censored (pages 118, 123 and 129 of the printed version) relating to the German embassy, "to the services of Mr. Malvy at the Sureté Générale and the Préfecture de police" (handwritten sheets 82, 85 and 88). Attached 2 busts of Léon Daudet on loose sheets: 1. dated 1926, engraved by André de Székély de Doba (Hungarian painter, 1877-1945). 2. in pencil, signed Pazzi (22 x 28 cm, Ruggero Pazzi 1927-2010), Italian painter, sculptor and engraver. Spine very slightly faded.