Born in Prilep, in the Manastir Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire (present-day North Macedonia), Talev studied at the Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki, the Bulgarian pedagogical school of Skopje and later in Stara Zagora and Bitola.

After Valko Chervenkov was replaced by Todor Zhivkov, Talev was declared by the new government as unlawfully repressed and was subsequently pardoned and rehabilitated.

He published several more books, notably his tetralogy "The Iron Candlestick", "The Bells of Prespa", "Ilinden" and "I Hear Your Voices".

In 2016, the Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria sent an inquiry to the authorities in the Republic of Macedonia due to copyright violations regarding the translation and publication of parts of Talev's tetralogy by a private publishing house.

[6] The novels of Dimitar Talev were translated with dozens of pages cut out and replacement of the word "Bulgarian" with "Macedonian" in the text.