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The Yearling was a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, published in 1938, about a young boy and his pet deer in Florida's Big Scrub. That same year, Rawlings sold the film rights of the book to MGM for $30,000. In 1939, the studio sent art directors to north-central Florida to scout locations with Rawlings and gather visual research of Cracker Florida. They eventually leased a farm, planted crops, and began remodeling the farm to be used as an exterior set for the Baxter family farm. Filming was set to begin in 1940 in North Central Florida under director Victor Fleming with Spencer Tracy, Gene Eckman, Anne Revere and Tully Marshall. Several conflicts led to film's cancellation by the studio after two months. After World War II, the studio finally completed the film in 1947 with Gregory Peck, Claude Jarman, and Jane Wyman.