Good stuff: memory management dot org
memorymanagement.org
memorymanagement.org
If you get into the "mind" of the project, you will be able to trace the progression of ideas and see why things were done the way they were. I often read peripheral papers on a given project because I tend to get the big picture from those filler papers, usually written by the lead, and/or coauthored with the entire team. The highly technical papers reserved for the best and most specialized conferences usually skim the details and present the most novel idea in its purest crystal form .. usually under length restrictions and addressing a well prepared audience.
I recommend a beginner to memory management start with Wilson's Uniprocessor Garbage Collection Techniques
ftp://ftp.cs.utexas.edu/pub/garbage/bigsurv.ps
Abstract:
Thanks for the link!
Alternatively, a good way to find authoritative works in a list like this is to read the references at the back of each book. If most of them refer to the same three or four books you'll want to read those first.
You can try looking up the books on wikipedia and seeing what is sad about them.
Edit : I found his page but am not sure which paper(s) you are specifically referring to.