Épinay, Louise Florence Pétronille (de Tardieu d'Esclavelles) La Live d', 1726-83, French woman of letters. Influential in the Enlightenment, she was the friend of many of its leaders, especially Melchior Grimm, her literary heir, and Diderot. She was Rousseau's benefactress until 1757, when they quarreled, and subsequently they attacked each other in their writings. She wrote a treatise on the education of girls, Les Conversations d'Émilie (pub. 1775 though volume bears date 1774). Her memoirs and correspondence (1818, tr. 1897, 1930) give a vivid account of her circle.

live-forever: see stonecrop.

live oak: see oak.

Any of several North American ornamental and timber trees in the red-oak group of the genus Quercus in the beech family. The southern live oak (Q. virginiana) is a massive (50 ft, or 15 m, tall), durable evergreen tree. The trunk divides near the ground into several limbs that extend horizontally as much as two to three times the height of the tree. The elliptical leaves are dark green and glossy above, whitish and hairy below. A valuable timber tree, the southern live oak is also planted as a shade and avenue tree in the southern U.S. The oldest trees are 200–300 years old.

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(born Nov. 29, 1898, Belfast, Ire.—died Nov. 22, 1963, Oxford, Oxfordshire, Eng.) Irish-born British scholar and writer. Lewis taught first at Oxford (1925–54) and later at Cambridge (1954–63). An early volume, the critical Allegory of Love (1936) on medieval and Renaissance literature, is often considered his finest scholarly work. He became known in England and the U.S. for several series of BBC radio broadcasts during the war years on the subject of Christianity. Many of his books embrace Christian apologetics; the best known is The Screwtape Letters (1942), a satirical epistolary novel in which an experienced devil instructs his young charge in the art of temptation. Also well known are The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–56), a series of seven children's stories (including The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, 1950) that have become classics of fantasy; and a science-fiction trilogy, known mostly for its first volume, Out of the Silent Planet (1938).

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